^  REESE   LIBRARY  ■ 


1)1    iiir.  t 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

^     I  Received  c^/.  .^^S.  j 

-.Accessions  >so.(p^^20-      '.'LissNo.  .     [ 


A  Syllabus  of  Ethics 


Bryant 


Chicago 
S.  C.  Griggs  and  Company 


BY   THE   SAME   AUTHOR: 


I.   The  World  -  Energy  and    its  Self- 
Conservation.       (Griggs.)         -       ^l   50 

II.  Hegel's  Philosophy  of  Art,  Trans- 
lation with  Introduction.  (Out  of 
print-) I    75 

III.  Philosophy  of  Landscape  Painting,  i  00 

IV.  Goethe  as  a  Representative  of  the 

Modern  Art-Spirit,       -  -         0  25 

V.  Historical  Presuppositions  and 
Foreshadowings  of  Dante's  "  Di- 
vine Comedy,"         -        -        -         0  15 

VI.    Eternity,  a  Thread    in    the  Weaving 

of  a  Life.     (Grigg.s.)  -         -         0  25 


VII.    A  Syllabus  of  Psychology.  (Griggs.)  o  25 

VIII.   A  Text-Book  of  Psychology.     (In  prep- 
aration.) 


A  SYLLABUS  OF  ETHICS 


BY 

WILLL\M    M.   BRYANT,  M.A. 

INSTRUCTOR   IN   MENTAL   AND   MORAL    PHILOSOPHY,    ST.    LOUIS   NORMAL 
AND   HIGH    SCHOOL 


CHICAGO 

S.  C.  GRIGGS  AND   COMPANY 

1894 


Copyright,  1894 
By  S.  C.  GRIGGS  AND  COMPANY 


JTfjf  iLafefssilif  PrfBB 

R.   R.    DONNELLEY    &    SONS   CO.,  CHICAGO 


^      OF  iHK  ^^y> 
UNIVERSITY 

PREFACE. 


The  present  sketch  is  an  outgrowth  of  work  done 
during  several  years  with  my  classes  in  the  St.  Louis 
High  School.  In  its  present  form,  however,  the 
sketch  has  been  prepared  directly  with  a  view  to 
meeting  the  needs  of  the  St.  Louis  Society  of  Peda- 
gogy in  so  far  as  one  of  the  Sections  of  that  Society 
is  organized  for  the  express  purpose  of  studying 
Ethics. 

My  aim  has  been  first  of  all  to  furnish  a  guide  to 
what  I  cannot  but  regard  as  a  specially  fruitful 
method  in  the  study  of  Ethics,  rather  than  to  present 
an  elaborate  scheme  of  the  science  of  Ethics  as  such. 
On  the  other  hand,  as  in  my  Syllabus  of  Psychology, 
so  here,  I  have  omitted  details  and  have  sought  thus 
to  bring  into  so  much  the  clearer  view  the  essential 
aspects  of  the  subject,  and  have  attempted  also  to 
indicate  the  vital  relation  which  those  aspects  sus- 
tain one  to  another  in  the  organic  unity   of   human 

life. 

It  is  such  emphasizing  of  already  more  or  less 
clearly  recognized  fundamental  principles,  and  this 
with  reference  to   their  practical  application,   rather 

5 


PREFACE. 


than  subtilizing  upon  obscure  points  of  theory,  that 
is  most  needed  in   our  general   (and  for  the  greater 
part  elementary)  educational  work.  If  Ethics  is  really 
to  be  taught  to  any  good  purpose  in  our  schools  this 
distinction  between  the  earnest   and   intelligent  pur- 
suit of  what  is  really  of  practical    import,  in    contrast 
with  the    merely   dilettantish    inquiry   after    what    is 
at  best  but  curious,  must  not  only  be  kept    clearly  in 
view,    it    must     also     be     consistently    observed    in 
practice  by  the  teacher.     And    further,   no   one  can 
successfully    teach    what  he  does   not  explicitly   and 
sincerely  believe.     Nor  is  this  all  ;  the   growing  de- 
mand  for   definite    Ethical   teaching   means    nothing 
less  than  that  the  teacher  is  more  and  more  positively 
expected  to  have    a    clearly    defined    Ethical    creed. 
More  than  anything  else,  in  fact,  could   we   but   look 
into   the  heart  of  it,  the   great  educational   revival   of 
to-day  means  that  now  at  length    there  is  emerging 
into    clearly    conscious   form   a  deep-lying    universal 
conviction  to  the  effect  that   all   teaching   is   merely 
phantasmal  unless  it  has  a  genuinely   Ethical  core. 

The  teacher  can  meet  this  conviction  only  by 
sharing  it  and  becoming  a  leader  in  the  fuller  and 
more  reasonable  expression  of  it  in  its  positive  im- 
port. Let  each  contribute  his  mite.  As  for  the 
present  writer,  this  sketch  is  the  best  he  has  now  in 
form  to  offer.  Nevertheless,  imperfect  as  it  is,  he 
hopes  it  may  not  be  without  use ;  and  so  it  is  offered. 


PREFACE,  7 

Perhaps  at  some  future  time  he  may  attempt  a  more 
adequate  representation  of  the  Science  of  Human 
Conduct. 

A  selected  list  of  hand   and   reference  books  will 
be- found  at  the  close  of  this  Syllabus. 


t^  OF   THK 

UNIVEBSITY 


A   SYLLABUS   OF   ETHICS. 


I.     INTRODUCTION.. 

Like  every  other  science  the  Science  of  Ethics  is 
at  once  both  inductive  and  deductive.  In  the  pro- 
cess of  its  development  as  a  science  it  is  predomi- 
nantly inductive  and  synthetic.  In  the  process  of  its 
application  it  is  predominantly  deductive  and  analyt- 
ical. In  the  former  case  search  is  made,  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  for  a  first  principle  that  shall  really 
unify  knowledge  and  hence  serve  as  a  true,  ade- 
quate, and  hence  unvarying  standard  of  judgment  in 
the  given  field.  In  the  latter  case  such  principle  is 
assumed  as  already  discovered  ;  and  what  is  really 
striven  after  is  the  precise  valuation  of  given  particu- 
lar facts  by  means  of  the  assumed  principle. 

In  reality,  as  need  hardly  be  said,  the  develop- 
ment of  the  science  of  Ethics  on  the  one  hand  and 
its  application  on  the  other  have  never  been  and 
could  never  be  wholly  separated.  They  are  but  com- 
plementary aspects  in  the  development  of  any  degree 
of  life  that  could  properly  be  called  human.  And  this 
is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  incessant  practical 
necessity  of  forming  judgments  upon  given  particular 

9 


10  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

concrete  instances  has  stimulated,  and  could  not  but 
stimulate  inquiry  concerning  the  required  general 
principle;  while  each  stage  in  the  clearing  up  of 
consciousness  as  to  what  the  principle  really  is  has 
served  to  insure  an  increase  in  the  adequacy  and 
accuracy  of  the  judgments  actually  formed. 

Looked  at  as  a  result  Ethics  may  be  defined  as 
the  Science  of  Human  Conduct.  Looked  at  as  a  pro- 
cess it  may  be  defined  as  the  Evolution  of  the  Human 
Conscience.  In  the  latter  sense  there  never  was  a 
period  when  Ethics  was  wholly  wanting.  In  the 
former  sense  there  never  has  been  and  can  never 
be  a  period  when  Ethics  could  be  conceived  as 
altogether  matured  and  finished. 

But  further,  just  as  in  its  very  beginning,  the  Sci- 
ence of  Ethics  presupposed  the  actual  existence  of  the 
Ethical  process,  and  this  as  being  already  well  ad- 
vanced, so  also  in  its  more  mature  forms  this  Science 
presupposes  the  existence  of  other  sciences.  In  its 
form  and  method  especially,  it  presupposes  the  two 
mutually  complementary  sciences  of  Logic  and  Meta- 
physics ;  while  in  its  subject-matter  it  presupposes 
more  directly  the  Sciences  of  Psychology,  Social  Phi- 
losophy, and  Theology — that  is,  the  sciences  which 
trace  out,  first  the  fundamental,  typical  nature  of  the 
human  individual;  secondly,  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples involved  in  associated  human  life;  and  finally, 
the  ultimate    nature    of    the    supreme    primal    Con- 


INTRODUCTION.  1 1 


sciousness,  together  with  the  chief  aspects  of  man's 
relationship  to  that  Consciousness.  In  other  words, 
the  Science  of  Ethics  can  develop  into  actual,  con- 
sistent realization  as  a  Science  only  in  so  far  as  it  is 
logical  in  method  ;  only  in  so  far  as  it  frankly  meets 
and  solves  the  metaphysical  problems  inevitably  aris- 
ing in  the  course  of  Ethical  investigation;  only  in  so 
far  as  it  is  able  to  present  in  their  vital  relations  as 
well  as  in  their  proper  form  the  psychological  aspects 
of  its  own  subject-matter  ;  only  in  so  far  as  it  clearly 
recognizes  and  adequately  deals  with  the  complex 
Ethical  aspects  involved  in  human  association  ;  and 
finally,  only  in  so  far  as  it  apprehends,  appreciates 
and  proves  able  to  rationally  represent  the  theolog- 
ical trend  of  all  Etliical  problems.  In  doing  which 
it  will  carefully  maintain  its  own  specific  limitations 
in  contrast  with  each  and  all  these  sciences. 

(It  may  be  noted  here  in  parenthesis  that  just  as 
Logic  is  to  be  regarded  as  constituting  in  the  stricter 
sense  the  science  of  the  rhythm  of  Thought,  and  as 
Esthetics  constitutes  what  may  rightly  be  called  the 
science  of  the  rhythm  of  Feeling,  so  Ethics  may 
properly  be  described  as  the  science  of  the  rhythm  of 
Conduct.  Though  it  is  never  to  be  forgotten  that 
Thought  and  Feeling  and  Conduct  are  the  absolutely 
interfused  and  mutually  complementary  aspects  of 
every  concrete  human  life  and  indeed  of  all  conceiva- 
ble spiritual  life;) 


12  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

It  is  next  to  be  remarked  that  the  essential 
aspects  of  Ethics  are  all  discoverable  through  a  gen- 
eral (critical)  survey  of  the  chief  historical  forms  in 
which  the  fundamental  Ethical  conceptions  have 
found  concrete  expression  from  age  to  age;  and  to 
these  forms,  therefore,  it  will  be  well  in  the  next 
place  to  give  some,  however  brief,  consideration. 

IL  FUNDAMENTAL  HISTORICAL  ASPECTS  OF  ETHICS. 

Historically,  as  was  but  just  noticed,  the  develop- 
ment of  an  explicit  science  of  Ethics  has  always  pre- 
supposed the  Ethical  process  as  already  far  advanced 
beyond  any  mere  "beginning."  Nor  could  this 
order  be  conceived  to  be  reversed,  since  the  unfold- 
ing of  any  science  necessarily  presupposes  the  actual 
existence  of  the  facts  of  which  the  science  is  but  the 
reasoned  account — not  to  mention  the  fact  that  only 
an  Ethical  being  relatively  matured  as  such  is  capable 
of  any  activity  resulting  in  the  unfolding  of  any  sci- 
ence, and  above  all  of  the  science  of  Ethics  as  such. 


'» 


I.  Mythic  Aspect.  But  long  before  there  could 
be  a  science  of  Ethics,  properly  speaking,  the  Ethical 
consciousness  attained  expression  —  as  it  will  never 
cease  to  attain  expression  —  in  mythic  form.  At  the 
basis  of  all  this  is  the  contrast  between  Light  and 
Darkness.  Light  stimulates  the  vital  process.  The 
increased  'vigor  thus  attained  results  in  added  sense 


FUNDAMENTAL    HISTORICAL    ASPECTS.  I  3 

of  power,  whence  arises  a  feeling  of  buoyancy.  With 
darkness,  on  the  other  hand,  the  vital  process  is 
lowered.  Hence  a  relative  sense  of  weakness  and 
depression. 

Such  is  the  physiological  explanation  of  courage  in 
tne  Light  and  of  fear  in  the  Darkness.  But  the  spir- 
itual factor  involved  in  these  experiences  is  no  less 
real  and  vital  than  is  the  physiological.  Indeed  there 
can  be  no  experience,  properly  speaking,  that  is  not 
itself  essentially  spiritual  in  its  nature. 

The  spiritual  factor  here  referred  to  consists  of 
Personification.  The  human  unit  differs  primarily 
from  the  animal  unit  especially  in  this  :  That  he 
knows  a  Past  and  a  Future,  and  in  the  very  fact  of 
knowing  them  proves  able  to  gather  and  hold  both 
Past  and  Future  in  the  Present.  The  actual  experi- 
ences of  the  Past  can  be  known  as  past  only  as  they 
are  present  in  consciousness  through  the  representa- 
tions of  memory. 

The  possible  experiences  of  the  Future  can  be 
known  as  future  only  as  they  are  present  in  con- 
sciousness through  the  representations  of  Imagina- 
tion. And  the  representations  of  Memory  and  of 
Imagination  are  constantly  interfused  in  greater  or 
less  degree  even  in  the  relatively  critical  mind  of 
modern  nian.  How  much  more  must  this  have  been 
the  case  in  the  uncritical  mind  of  "primitive"  man! 
Hence  the  confident  construction   on   his   part   of  a 


14  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 


X 


Past  that  never  was  and  of  a  Future  that  never  gfeuld 
be.  Just  as  in  visual  Perception  the  mind  creates 
"  images  "  consisting  of  form  and  color  and  at  the 
same  time  projects  these  subjective  products  into 
space  and  never  doubts  their  objective  reality  ;  so 
primitive  man  unconsciously  mingled  human  ele- 
ments with  elements  drawn  from  nature  and  in  doing 
so  created  Ethical  conceptions  which  he  no  less  un- 
consciously and  confidently  projected  into  a  Divine 
world  that  in  turn  became  to  him  a  model  for  the 
human  world. 

The  central,  permanent  element  of  truth  in  all 
this,  as  the  sequel  should  show,,  is  the  identity  in  type 
as  between  Divinity  and  Humanity. 

II.  Scientific  Aspect.  Ethical  consciousness 
first  attained  explicit  Scioitific  utterance  in  the  mouth 
of  Socrates.  And  yet  this  very  struggle  toward  sci- 
entific definition  could  not  but  result  in  more  or  less 
of  exaggeration  ;  and  here  the  special  form  of  excess 
consisted  in  the  emphasizing  of  the  importance  of 
knowledge  as  a  factor  of  right-doing  until  knowledge 
itself  became  fairly  identified  with  Virtue,  instead  of 
being  clearly  recognized  in  its  proper  limitation  as 
constituting  only  one  of  the  essential  factors  of 
Virtue.  It  is  with  Aristotle,  in  fact,  that  a  true 
science  of  Ethics  as  such  has  its  beginning.  He  it  is 
who  first  sees  clearly  the  real  clew  to  a  specific  and 
adequate  science  of  human   conduct.     He,  first  of  all, 


FUNDAMENTAL    HISTORICAL    ASPECTS.  I  5 

sets  out  with  and  steadily  pursues  an  inductive  study 
of  tlie  facts  within  this  sphere  and  through  such 
study  traces  out  those  fundamental  rehations  which 
find  their  unity  in  the  central  principle  of  conscious 
self-consistency  concretely  unfolded  in  a  well-poised 
individual  human  character.  Nevertheless,  as  the  facts 
of  the  Hellenic  social  world  only  served  to  give 
emphasis  to  the  individual,  so  the  Ethics  of  Aristotle 
is,    in   reality,    simply    the   Ethics    of    Individualism. 

If  now  we  turn  to  the  Roman  world  we  find  that  it 
contributes  only  indirectly  to  the  development  of  the 
science  of  Ethics.  At  the  same  time  the  contribution 
is  none  the  less  valid  and  valuable.  For  it  is  noth- 
ing less  than  the  disciplinary  conception  of  conscious 
conformity  to  principles  concretely  unfolded  in  the 
various  phases  of  institutional  life.  So  that  here  we 
may  be  said  to  have  the  Ethics  of  Institutionalisni. 

(It  is,  as  we  may  remark  in  passing,  precisely  in 
this  complete  subordination  of  the  Individual  to  In- 
stitutions that  the  stoical  aspect  of  Ethical  doctrine, 
in  its  negative  character  as  emphasizing  resignation, 
finds  its  natural  and  ample  ground  of  development. 
In  the  later — Christian — world  this  aspect  finds  con- 
crete realization  in   the  monastic  orders.) 

Again  while  the  ancient  Hebrews  made  no  formal 
presentation  of  Ethics  as  a  science,  yet  on  the  other 
hand  their  whole  literature  is  pervaded  with  the  pro- 
foundly  Ethical  presupposition   (gradually  unfolded 


l6  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

into  clear,  though  still  unreflecting,  form  in  the 
national  consciousness  through  the  whole  course  of 
their  experience  as  a  people)  that  all  human  conduct 
is  fundamentally  related  to  the  requirements  of  a 
primal,  infinite  (and  hence  absolutely  rational)  Con- 
sciousness. 

The  Individual;  Institutions,  as  involving  the  imme- 
diate, concrete  relations  of  individual  to  individual; 
the  Ideal  of  a  divinely  given  (i.  e.,  perfect)  Law  as  the 
absolute  standard  of  human  conduct — such  are  the 
fundamental  factors  that  have  fused  into  organic 
unity  in  the  modern  or  Christian  Ethical  Conscious- 
ness. Thus  this  richer  aspect  of  the  Ethical  Con- 
sciousness is  but  the  more  elaborate  unfolding  (in- 
fused union)  of  the  earlier  germinal  forms,  all  which 
may  be  found  to  be  included  under  one  or  other  of 
the  three  types,  Greek,  Roman,  and  Hebrew. 

It  is  only  as  such  well-balanced,  organic  unity  of 
the  earlier  and  one-sided  forms  of  Ethical  Conscious- 
ness that  the  modern  consciousness  can  deal  success- 
fully with  the  problem  of  the  true  Conduct  of  Life, 
infinitely  enhanced  as  it  is  in  complexity.  The  modern 
consciousness  recognizes  more  and  more  clearly  that 
continued  and  unbiased  study  of  human  deeds,  and 
that  alone,  can  bring  into  ever  clearer,  more  accurate 
and  more  adequate  (i.  e.,  more  truly  Scientific)  view 
the  whole  vital  sum  of  significance  involved  in  the 
relations  of  each  individual  human  being  (i)  to  those 


THE    ETHICAL    END.  I7 

fundamental  principles  which  are  progressively  as- 
suming concrete  reality  for  this  world  through  in- 
stitutional forms,  and  (2)  to  that  infinitely  vital,  typical 
and  eternally  perfect  Consciousness  manifested  every- 
where in  and  through  the  infinitely  varied  aspects  of 
the  World  as  a  Whole.  Thus  the  modern  or  Christian 
form  of  the  science  of  Ethics  has  unfolded,  and  must 
continue  to  unfold,  as  the  actual  process  of  tracing 
out  the  evidence  of  the  divine  (absolutely  rational) 
Law  as  unfolded  in  the  Individual  through  the  medium 
of  Institutions.  Only  as  such  concretely  rational  pro- 
cess can  Ethics  attain  and  maintain  a  genuinely  vital 
character. 

III.     THE  ETHICAL  END. 

We  have  next  to  notice  that  throughout  the  whole 
Ethical  process  there  is  necessarily  presupposed  a  defi- 
nite end  or  aim  toward  the  realization  of  which  every 
act  of  any  and  every  human  being  is  directed,  (i)  If 
that  end  really  consists  of  and  is  restricted  to  Pleasure, 
then  the  Science  of  Ethics  will  have  for  its  chief  func- 
tion to  discover  the  utmost  measure  of  significance 
denoted  by  the  term  Pleasure,  and  to  point  the  way  to 
the  fullest  attainment  of  that  end.  Such,  in  its  sim- 
plest form,  is  the  view  known  as  Hedonism  (historically 
the  standpoint  of  the  Greek  Sophists,  and  of  course 
also,  later,  of  the  Epicureans  ;  though  by  no  means  in 
the  gross  sense  commonly  supposed).     (2)  If,  again, 

3 


1 8  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

the  chief  end  of  human  activity  is  assumea  to  be  the 
securing  of  universal  Well-being  then  the  Science  of 
Ethics  must  have  for  its  task  to  present  a  consistent 
and  adequate  view  of  what  true  well-being  is,  and  also 
to  unfold  a  systematic  general  view  of  the  media  essen- 
tial to  its  realization.  In  which  case  the  Science  of 
Ethics  must  be  of  the  Utilitarian  type  (represented  in 
modern  times  especially  by  J.  S.  Mill  and  Prof.  Sidg- 
wick).  (3)  Or  it  may  be  that  the  true  aim  of  human 
conduct  is  to  be  found  in  the  fulfillment  of  Duty;  that 
is,  in  obedience  to  a  supreme  Law  as  expressive  of  an 
ultimate,  divine  Will.  And  in  this  we  should  have 
what  may  be  properly  named  theological  Y.'Caxo.^  (the 
philosophical  ground  of  which  is  developed  in  its  most 
uncompromising  form  by  Kant).  (4)  If,  finally,  the 
true  end  of  human  conduct  should  prove  to  be  that  of 
the  Self-realization  of  individual  man,  then  the  Science 
of  Ethics  is  bound  to  ascertain  first  of  all  as  its  ulti- 
mate principle,  the  true  nature  of  man  as  man,  includ- 
ing all  the  fundamental  aspects  of  that  nature  ;  and 
having  formulated  this,  its  further  task  must  be  to 
trace  in  outline  a  consistent,  reasoned  estimate  of  the 
means  and  the  method  necessary  to  the  realization  of 
such  true  end. 

In  the  former  sense  our  science  would  be  theoretical 
or  speculative  Ethics.  In  the  latter,  practical  or  applied 
Ethics  ;  and  in  this  sense  its  fully  elaborated  form 
must  include  an  intimation  of  the  fundamental  aspects 


THE    ETHICAL    END.  IQ 

of  the  special  Sciences  of  Economics  and  Politics — 
in  short,  the  whole  range  of  what  has  been  com- 
prehensively styled  Social  Philosophy.  (In  its  spec- 
ulative phase  the  chief  modern  representative  is  T. 
H.  Green.  Of  the  practical  aspect  the  fundamental 
principles  are  strongly  outlined  —  though  not  with- 
out bias —  in  Hegel's  Philosophic  dcs  RecJits.) 

On  reflection,  indeed,  it  would  seem  by  no  means 
impossible  that  in  the  actual  process  of  perfecting 
human  life  upon  the  express  view  of  man's  ultimate 
nature,  there  would  be  realized  the  fullest  possible 
measure  of  all  really  pleasurable  experience,  when  the 
whole  range  of  what  is  to  be  counted  as  truly  pleasur- 
able is  rightly  estimated.  And  further  it  would  seem 
quite  possible  that  in  the  same  process  the  utmost 
attainable  degree  of  Well-being  must  also  be  most  cer- 
tainly secured. 

In  which  case  all  that  is  valid  in  the  aims  of  both 
Hedonism  and  Utilitarianism  must  be  raised  to  the 
highest  possible  degree  of  significance  through  a  system 
of  Ethics  based  on  a  thorough-going  analysis  of  human 
nature  as  manifested  in  the  individual  consciousness 
on  the  one  hand  and  in  the  history  of  the  race  on  the 
other.  If,  further,  it  should  turn  out  that  the  indi- 
vidual human  consciousness  is  one  in  type  with  the 
ultim.ate,  eternally  perfect  Consciousness  manifested 
in  every  phase  of  the  total  World-Order,  then  it  would 
appear  that  the  divine  Law  as  expressive  of  the  ulti- 


20  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

mate  and  absolutely  holy  Will,  must  be  involved  in 
the  very  nature  of  the  human  Will.  And  thus  it  must 
be  evident  that  in  the  very  process  of  his  own  self- 
realization  man  must  be  fulfilling  the  divine  Law  (as 
comprehended  in  and  through  Reason)  and  so,  per- 
forming his  highest  "duty." 

It  can  only  be  remarked  here  that  to  assume  Pleas- 
ure as  the  chief  end  of  human  life  is  to  reduce  the  self- 
conscious  activity  of  man  to  its  lowest  instead  of  rais- 
ing it  to  its  highest  term.  In  the  very  nature  of  the 
case  any  given  pleasure  is  but  for  the  moment.  The 
merely  pleasure-seeking  life  is  therefore  necessarily 
an  endless  search  that  never  ceases  from  fear  and  long- 
ing. In  other  words  such  a  life  is  essentially  nothing 
else  than  a  more  or  less  prolonged  self-contradiction. 
At  the  same  time  Utilitarianism,  in  its  highest  sense, 
i.e.  in  the  sense  of  the  utmost  attainable  extent  of 
Well-being,  is  after  all  simply  a  "general-happiness" 
principle  which  only  resolves  itself  into  a  more  subtle 
Hedonism  in  which  as  many  individuals  as  possible 
are  conceived  as  attaining  each  the  highest  degree  of 
more  or  less  refined  pleasure  or  "  happiness." 

On  the  other  hand  the  actual  attainment  of  self- 
perfection,  in  whatever  degree,  nuist  thus  far  involve 
genuine  self-consistency  or  rhythm  of  experience — 
that  is,  it  must  involve  a  corresponding  measure  of 
self-satisfaction. 

And  here  (let  us  note  carefully),  it  is  the  abiding 


THE    ETHICAL    END.  21 

self  that  is  satisfied,  and  satisfied  the  more,  the  more 
fully  and  clearly  it  apprehends  as  certainly  possible 
for  itself,  unlimited  further  self-perfection.  Whence 
it  would  seem  that  only  when  self-realization  is  taken 
as  the  real  Ethical  end,  can  the  end  proposed  either  by 
Hedonism  or  by  Utilitarianism  or  by  theological  Ethics 
be  actually  attained.  If  pleasure,  if  well-being,  if 
duty — if  either  or  all  these  together  can  be  justly  re- 
garded as  constituting  a  worthy  motive  to  human 
action  then  much  more  may  self-realization  be  justly 
regarded  as  f]ic  one  highest  and  really  adequate  Ethical 
End,  since  in  the  unswerving  pursuit  of  this  end  and 
in  that  alone  is  it  possible  that  even  the  lower  and  leSs 
adequate  aims  can  be  surely  realized  in  their  truest 
significance.  With  this  understanding,  then,  there 
need  be  nothing  invidious  in  designating  the  System 
of  Ethics  based  on  this  principle  (were  the  system 
once  developed)  as  Ideal  or  Rational  Ethics. 

Such  system  has,  indeed,  long  been  in  process  of 
development;  each  succeeding  generation  will  make 
more  or  less  important  contribution  to  its  improve- 
ment ;  the  system  will  be  ever  approximating  com- 
pletion ;   it  will  never  be  actually  completed. 

If,  now,  we  reflect  upon  the  profound  significance  of 
the  statement  that  "the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  within 
you" — that  is,  that  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case  the 
"Kingdom  of  Heaven"  is  involved  in  human  con- 
sciousness and   to  be  realized  only  through  the  pro- 


22  A   SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

gressive  unfolding  of  human  consciousness  —  it 
would  seem  that  the  supreme  Ethical  principle  is 
already  involved  in  the  dogmatic  affirmation  :  "  Seek 
ye  first  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  and  its  righteousness 
and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  For 
this  would  seem  to  mean  nothing  else  than  this:  — 
Comply  unreservedly  in  the  whole  range  of  your  activity 
to  the  actual  demands  of  Reason  as  the  eternal  fortn  of 
your  otvn  true  being  and  all  really  good  things  will  be 
yours ;  for  they  are  but  the  inevitable  result  of  such 
compliance. 

IV.     COMPLEMENTARY  ASPECTS  OF  ETHICS. 

We  have  next  to  note  that  from  its  very  nature  as 
the  Science  of  human  conduct  Ethics  nmst  at  every 
stage  present  two  fundamental  and  mutually  comple- 
mentary aspects.  These  are  (i)  the  Subjective  Aspect 
and  (2)  the  Objective  Aspect. 

In  the  ethical  Process  these  aspects  are  of  course 
coincident  and  even  absolutely  interfused ;  for  they 
are  but  correlative  phases  of  human  life.  On  the 
other  hand  in  the  formulation  of  the  science  of  Ethics 
these  complementary  aspects  can  only  be  treated 
serially.  It  is  evident,  too,  that  since  the  subjective 
aspect  consists  of  the  individual  character  as  the  ethical 
unit  strictly  speaking,  this  aspect  properly  falls  to  be 
considered  first  in  the  formal  unfolding  of  the  Science. 


COMPLEMENTARY    ASPECTS    OF    ETHICS.  23 

For  the  objective  aspect  consists  of  the  fundamental 
relations  between  individual  and  individual  ;  and  the 
scientific  consideration  of  these  relations  must  there- 
fore presuppose,  as  something  already  explicitly  un- 
folded, the  results  of  a  critical  and  more  or  less 
adequate  consideration  of  the  essential  nature  of  the 
individual  character  constituting  the  type  of  ethical 
units  so  related.  It  is  here,  indeed,  that  Ethics  is 
found  to  be  in  closest  relation  with  Psychology.  In 
the  latter  science  the  most  comprehensive  term  is 
Consciousness.  In  Ethics  the  most  comprehensive 
term  is  Conscience  which  is  simply  consciousness  in  its 
ethical  aspect.  Again  while  P.sychology  restricts  itself 
to  the  simple  (but  reasoned)  representation  of  the 
whole  individual  mind,  preserving,  as  far  as  possible, 
perfect  balance  of  all  its  modes  ;  Ethics,  on  the  con- 
trary, singles  out  the  Will  as  that  mode  of  mind 
which  predominates  in  all  human  conduct,  makes  a 
special  study  of  mind  in  that  mode,  and  carries  its 
investigation  over  into  the  sphere  of  the  relations 
between  individual  and  individual.  But  while  in  the 
latter  respect  Ethics  is  contrasted  with  Psychology  it 
still  presents  further  phases  of  close  relationship  to 
this  science  in  the  fact  that,  besides  constantly  pre- 
supposing the  results  of  psychological  investigation, 
it  must  still  take  up  certain  aspects  of  mind  and  press 
their  analysis  beyond  what  is  required  in  Psychology 
properly  speaking.     This  is  especially  true  in  respect 


24  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

of  that  fundamental  quality  of  mind  known  as  Virtue 
and  which  presents  its  essential  phase  of  differentia- 
tion in  the  so-called  "Virtues." 

Finally,  the  objective  aspect  of  Ethics  unfolds  into 
a  systematic  (and  reasoned)  statement  of  the  essential 
Rights  and  Duties  of  the  individual  human  being  (as 
involved  in  his  relations  to  other  individuals)  together 
with  an  analysis  of  the  fundamental  forms  through 
which  these  aspects  of  human  life  are  brought  into 
ever  richer  degrees  of  realization. 

It  is  in  this  sphere  that  Ethics  is  found  to  expand 
inevitably  so  as  to  include  the  whole  of  Social  Philos- 
ophy in  so  far  as  the  special  subject  of  consideration 
is  that  of  the  fundamental  relations  between  person 
and  person  (i)  in  Property,  (2)  in  the  Family  and  (3) 
in  the  State.  At  the  same  time  Ethics  must  take  into 
consideration  (4)  those  special  relations  between  per- 
son and  person  involved  in  the  institution  of  the 
Church  and  in  the  special  ends  sought  to  be  attained 
through  that  institution.  Whence  it  is  evident  that 
here  also  the  science  of  Ethics  tends  to  fuse  with 
that  of  Theology.  The  central  interest  giving  rise  to 
association  in  the  church  is  that  of  the  ultimate 
nature  and  destiny  of  man.  The  highest  form  of  the 
practical  unfolding  of  this  interest  constitutes  Re- 
ligion. 

The  science  of  the  principles  determining  the  rela- 
tions thus  involved   constitutes  Theology.     This   in 


SUBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  2^ 

turn  reflects  back  upon  the  civil  aspect  of  human 
relations  and  gives  them  a  distinctly  theological  trend. 

Hence  there  is  nothing  surprising  in  the  fact  that 
systems  of  Ethics  have  been  develoi)ed  under  the 
specific  designation  of  Theological  Ethics  (e.  g.  that 
of  Rothe.) 

Note,  finally,  that  Rights  and  Duties  are  relations ; 
and,  as  will  appear  later  on,  not  merely  mutually 
complementary  relations,  but  mutually  complementary 
aspects  of  o/ie  and  the  same  relation.  And  this  is 
true,  not  of  one  but  of  all  ethical  relations  properly 
speaking.  Every  Right  is  also  a  Duty.  Every  Duty 
is  also  a  Right. 

A.     SUBJE CTI I  'E  ASPE CT  OF  E  THICS. 

I.  Conscience.  Human  conduct  is  really  ethical 
only  in  so  far  as  it  involves  the  factor  of  Conscious- 
ness. The  mind  is  a  unit  of  Energy,  one  and  indi- 
visible. It  is  at  once  a  Power-to-know,  a  Power-to-do, 
and  a  Power-to-feel.  And  in  all  these  aspects  of  its 
actual  concrete  existence  it  is  in  greater  or  less  degree 
aware  of  itself  or  "conscious."  But  as  Will  (that  is,  as 
a  Power-to-do)  mind  exhibits  the  characteristic  of  con- 
sciousness in  a  peculiar  form.  Here  the  conscious- 
ness is  of  a  relation  between  a  standard  apprehended 
as  objectively  valid  on  the  one  hand,  and  some  action 
already  performed,  or  contemplated  as  possible  to  be 
performed   by  the  individual   himself  on    the    other. 


26  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

The  peculiarity  of  the  aspect  of  consciousness  here 
manifested  is  that  it  consists  not  merely  in  the  recog- 
nition of  the  given  relation,  but  that  it  involves  the  rec- 
ognition of  a  binding  quality  in  the  relation,  such  that 
the  individual  feels  as  well  as  sees  that  the  action  (per- 
formed or  proposed)  is  inherently  right  or  wrong — 
that  its  essential  tendency  is  for  good  ox  for  evil  in  his 
own  individual  life,  that  its  effect  is  necessarily  either 
constructive  or  destructive  to  the  very  being,  and  above 
all  to  the  well-hemg,  of  the  one  performing  the  action. 
Indeed,  to  this  phase  of  Consciousness  it  is  always 
in  greater  or  less  degree  apparent  that  the  ///-being 
of  the  individual  must  ultimately  mean  the  same  as 
his  110/1 -hth^g  (in  the  sense  of  utter  negation). 

It  is  in  this  peculiar  character  that  Consciousness 
properly  bears  the  name  of  Conscience  and  that  it  proves 
to  involve  this  further  characteristic —  that  it  prompts 
the  individual  to  the  performance  of  a  given  proposed 
action  or  restrains  him  from  its  performance.  So 
that,  as  already  noted.  Conscience  is  seen  to  be  in 
truth  just  the  ethical  aspect  of  Consciousness. 

(In  this  connection  it  is  well  worth  while  to  note 
that  since  Conscience  is  not  merely  intellectual,  but 
that  it  also  involves  Feeling  and  Will;  and  since  it  can 
never  be  said  to  pertain  to  Feeling  alone  or  toWill  alone 
• — for  thus  it  would  exclude  the  intellectual  factor,  with- 
out which  nothing  whatever  could  be  known  of  its 
existence — then  in  every  case  it  is  evident  that  the 


SUBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  27 

absolute  unity  of  the  mind  is  seen  to  be  emphasized 
in  high  degree  not  merely  by  consciousness  in  general 
but  also  bv  its  specially  ethical    aspect,  Conscience.) 

We  personify  Conscience  and  "  listen  to  its  dic- 
tates;" rejoice  in  its  "approval"  or  suffer  from  its 
"stings";  we  follow  its  "promptings"  or  heed  its 
"warnings."  In  reality,  the  truth  felt-after  in  such 
forms  of  expression  is  that  in  its  complex  unity  the 
mind  apprehends  (intellectually)  with  greater  or  less 
clearness  an  objective  standard  by  which  to  measure 
its  own  processes;  that  the  realization  bv  the  mind 
in  its  own  being  (through  volitional  activity)  of  the 
ideal  presented  in  that  standard  necessarilv  results  in 
a  special  state  of  such  mind  consisting  of  a  sense 
(feeling)  of  inner  rhythm  or  of  dissonance;  and 
further  that  even  the  mere  subjective  representation 
of  this  process  of  realizing  the  given  ideal  in  and  for 
one's  self  is  sufficient  to  awaken  a  lively  sense  of 
rhythm  or  of  dissonance. 

But  also  it  is  to  be  noted  that,  as  the  ethical  aspect 
of  Consciousness,  Conscience  is  primarily  crude  and  is 
always  liable  to  perversion  as  well  as  to  arrest  of 
development;  just  as,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  pos- 
sibility of  indefinite  elaboration  and  refinement  of  all 
its  positive  ethical  values  through  nurture  and  educa- 
tion. 

Conscience,  let  us  note  further,  is  not  a  "  faculty" 
of  the  mind.     (In  truth,  there  are  no  "  faculties,"  but 


28  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

only  modes  of  the  mind,  the  mind  itself  being,  as 
already  observed,  an  indivisible  unit  of  Energy.) 
On  the  contrary  Conscience  is  a  fundamental  aspect  of 
mind  in  its  totalitv,  and  hence  it  must  in  orreater  or 
less  degree  be  present  as  an  essential  factor  in  each 
and  every  one  of  the  modes  of  mind. 

The  extreme  view,  even  vet  so  widely  accepted,  to 
the  effect  that  Conscience  is  a  kind  of  supernaturally 
given  and  initially  perfect  "  guide  "  and  which  there- 
fore is  incapable  (and  wholly  without  need)  of  educa- 
tion need  here  be  mentioned  only  to  point  out  the 
fact  (evident  enough  to  the  reflective  mind)  that  such 
extreme  view  is  possible  only  upon  condition  of 
imperfect  knowledge  of  the  deep-reaching  significance 
which  heredity  bears  in  the  development  of  human 
character.  And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  to 
be  overlooked  that  glimpses  of  the  truth  that  the 
character  of  the  individual  is  dependent  primarily 
upon  descent  are  clearly  manifest  in  many  ways  in 
all  literature  (Hebrew  and  Christian  included).  Above 
all  is  it  manifest  in  the  deeply  significant  but  much 
misunderstood  doctrine  of  "Original  Sin." 

Doubtless  at  the  very  moment  of  birth  the  indi- 
vidual human  being  is  already  a  real  mind  with  already 
well  defined  tendencies,  the  determining  factors  of 
which  reach  back  through  an  unbroken  chain  to 
the  "first  parents"  of  such  being.  But  by  the  very 
complexity  of  the  process  of  descent  it   is  also  evi- 


SUBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  29 

dent  that  great  differences  must  exist  between  one 
and  another  such  being,  even  at  the  moment  of  birth. 
So  that  many  a  child  lias  "  I)y  nature,"  (i.  e.  from 
birth)  a  refined  sense  of  the  ethical  fitness  of  things, 
such  as  many  another  would  be  wholly  unable  to 
attain  through   a  life-time  of  discipline. 

On  the  contrary,  however,  it  is  evident  that  at  the 
best  the  "innate  "  (in  the  sense  of  the  inherited)  Con- 
science is  but  elementary  and  merely  instinctive  in 
its  character,  and  that  therefore  it  needs  to  be  awak- 
ened into  reflection  and  self-criticism,  so  that  the  solu- 
tion of  ethical  problems  may  be  reached  knowingly 
and  not  merely  through  the  ethical  consciousness  in 
its  purely  rudimentary  form.  The  Conscience  that 
is  not  enlightened — that  is,  unfolded  to  the  degree  of 
deliberate,  rational  self-examination — is  still  crude  in, 
fact  however  refined  and  delicate  it  may  outwardly  ' 
appear.  Only  when  the  Conscience  is  at  once  both 
practically  developed  so  as  to  insure  right  action  and 
also  enlightened  to  such  degree  that  the  individual  is 
"  able  to  give  a  [really  valid]  reason  for  the  faith  that 
is  in  him" — only  then  can  the  Conscience  be  rightly 
regarded  as  matured  and  trustworthy.  It  is  just  the\ 
deliberate,  persistent  neglect  to  realize  one's  self  as  a 
rational,  self-conscious  unit — it  is  precisely  this  that 
Nconstitutes  the  fact  of  "  Original  Sin."  No  doubt  this 
'is  a  negative  "fact."  But  then  all  sin  consists  in 
negation,  either  by  way  of  neglect  to   realize   some 


30  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

possible  form  of  the  essentially  Good  in  man  or  in 
nullifying  one  or  another  of  its  actually  realized  forms. 
And  since  Conscience,  as  the  ethical  aspect  of  Con- 
sciousness, is  in  its  very  nature  necessarily  the  ultimate 
practical  "guide"  in  all  human  conduct,  it  is  evidently 
impossible  to  overestimate  the  practical  importance 
of  the  fullest  possible  cultivation  and  rationalization 
of  Conscience.  Meanwhile,  for  our  present  purpose, 
the  full  significance  of  Conscience  can  be  brought 
into  clear  view  only  through  a  careful  analysis  of  the 
mind  considered  as  Will. 

II.  The  Will.  And  here  we  have  to  notice  at  the 
outset  that  the  discussion  in  detail  of  the  more  specific 
character  and  functions  of  the  Mind  as  Will,  together 
with  the  special  relations  which  the  Will  necessarily 
sustains  to  the  other  modes  of  mind  is  a  distinctly 
psychological  task.  Nevertheless,  since  Ethics  as  a 
Science  is  just  the  science  of  human  conduct,  and 
since  all  human  conduct  consists  of  nothing  else  than 
the  endlessly  complex  forms  in  which  the  human 
mind,  as  Will,  manifests  and  realizes  itself,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  a  Science  of  Ethics  from  which  all  considera- 
tion of  the  Will  were  excluded  would  be  simply  a 
contradiction  in  terms.  And  further,  it  is  to  be  care- 
fully noted  that  the  ethical  significance  of  any  act  of 
the  Mind  as  Will  depends  in  any  given  case  upon 
whether  the  given  act  really  has  its  origin  within  such 
mind  or  whether  the  origin  of  the  act  is  to  be  sought 


SUBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  3 1 

for  beyond  that  mind.      Only  an  act  that  is  really  de- "? 
termined  by  and  within  a  given  individual   Will  can 
riijhtlv   be  taken   as  a   valid   crround   for   an    ethical 
judgment  concerning  such  Will.     Only  as  the  actual; 
determiner    of    change    (whether    within    or    without! 
itself)  can  the  mind  be  properly  regarded  as  an  ethi- 
cal unit  at  all.     The  moment   the   individual   is   con- 
ceived as  merely    instrumental   in  any  given  jirocess, 
that   moment   it  becomes   clearly    inconceivable    that 
any  ethical  significance  should  attach  to  the  part  taken 
by  the  individual  in  such  process. 

Hence  to  ascertain  precisely  the  manner  in  which 
the  Will  (that  is,  the  Mind  as  Will,)  is  determined  to 
activity  must  be  of  vital  significance  to  the  Science  of 
Ethics.  If,  indeed,  it  could  be  shown  that  all  acts  of 
the  Will  are  determined  by  some  cause  lying  wholly 
beyond  the  Will,  then  a  Science  of  Ethics,  strictly 
speaking,  must  be  impossible;  for  thus  the  human 
Will  would  prove  to  be  devoid  of  ethical  significance; 
there  would  be  no  known  ethical  unit,  and  hence  no 
real  content  for  a  science  of  ethics. 

Thus  while  the  investigation  of  the  Will  in  its  entire 
range  constitutes  one  fundamental  part  of  the  entire 
task  of  psychology,  it  is  evident  that  the  science  of 
ethics  must  also  take  into  consideration  the  funda- 
mental nature  of  the  Will;  though  for  this  science  the 
central,  vital  question  is  manifestly  that  of  the  precise 
manner  in  which  the  Will  is  determined  to  activity — 


y 


32  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

that  is,  whether  it  is  self-determined  or  determined  by 
an  external  agency  or  agencies.  In  its  traditional 
form  the  question  is:  Whether  the  Will  is  free  or 
whether  it  is  compelled  to  activity  by  an  external 
power  or  powers.  From  this  point  of  view  it  is  Free- 
dom or  Necessity  that  is  to  be  predicated  absolutely  of 
the  Will.  And  from  this  point  of  view  doubtless  no" 
really  scientific  answer  can  ever  be  attained. 

Now  the  question  of  the  original  determination  of 
the  Will  may  take  either  of  two  forms.  In  the  one 
form  the  question  is  historical  and  the  search  for  its 
answer  is  resolved  into  a  study  of  the  process  through 
which  the  individual  Will  actually  arises  and  unfolds 
to  (or  rather  toward)  maturity. 

In  its  other  form  the  question  is  metaphysical  (in 
the  true  sense  of  that  term)  and  the  search  for  its 
answer  then  assumes  the  nature  of  a  specially  careful 
and  searching  critical  study  of  the  ultimate  character- 
istics seen  to  be  necessarily  implied  in  the  known 
peculiar  phenomena  of  the  Will.  In  the  former  case  the 
method  of  inquiry  is  of  course  predominantly  induc- 
tive (i.e.  observational)  ;  in  the  latter  it  is  predomin- 
antly deductive  (i.e.  inferential).  But  it  is  also  a 
matter  of  course  (as  the  mutually  complementary 
sciences  of  logic  and  metaphysics  make  plain)  that 
neither  of  these  methods  can  in  any  case  be  pursued  to 
the  entire  exclusion  of  the  other.  Rather  are  they 
simply  the  complementary  aspects  of  all  true  scientific 
method. 


SUBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  33 

Pursuance  of  the  inquiry  in  its  historical  form  has 
resulted  in  the  discovery  of  a  chain  of  evidence 
strongly  tending  to  justify,  if  not  absolutely  justify- 
insT,  the  conclusion  that  man  is  but  the  culmination 
of  an  evolutional  process,  including  the  whole  animal 
kinardom  at  the  least.  Such  evidence  seems  further 
to  justify  the  conclusion  that  when  this  process  is 
looked  at  in  inverse  order  it  is  seen  to  have  its  begin- 
nings in  the  interplay  of  merely  mechanical  and  chem- 
ical forces.  Again  it  is  he  brain  which  specially 
serves  as  the  structural  form  directly  organic  to  mind, 
while  mind  is  itself  a  mere  function  of  the  brain. 

Hence  it  would  seem  that  the  individual  mind  is 
predetermined  by  the  whole  course  of  evolution  lead- 
ing up  to,  and  culminating  in  the  existence  of,  such 
mind.  Such,  in  briefest  intimation,  is  the  result  ar- 
rived at  by  the  extreme  evolutionary  school  of 
scientists;  and  of  course  the  inevitable  corollary  from 
such  conclusion  is  that  Freedom  is  a  mere  illusion 
when  regarded  as  a  characteristic  of  the  individual 
human  Will.  So  that  in  strict  logical  consistency  this 
school  must  wholly  dispense  with  ethics  as  a  science, 
since  they  have  eliminated  all  real  ethical  content 
from  human  activity. 

On  the  other  hand  the  metaphysical  aspect  of  the 

question  cannot  be  wholly  excluded.     It    needs  but 

a  little    deliberate    reflection    to    see    that    a    higher 

(more   complex)    form  of  existence  can   really   have 

3 


34  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

its  origin  in  a  lower  (less  complex)  form  or  series 
of  forms  only  upon  this  condition:  That  a  highest 
(i.  e.  most  complex)  unit  of  Energy  works  with  con- 
sistency of  purpose  in,  and  manifests  itself  through 
(and  throughout)  the  whole  process  leading  up  to  the 
final  result.  And  if  this  result  consists  of  a  mind  in 
one  or  another  stage  of  its  evolution,  then  there  is 
presupposed  as  the  origin  and  essence  of  the  whole 
evolutional  process,  a  primal,  perfect,  and  hence  eter- 
nal and  eternally  self-unfolding  Mind.  The  evolu- 
tion of  mind,  in  whatever  degree,  necessarily  presup- 
poses Mind  in  perfect  degree.  And  Mind  in  perfect 
degree  is  conceivable  only  as  independent  of  all 
external  conditions.  It  is  conceivable  only  as  includ- 
ing in  its  own  Consciousness  every  phase  of  rational 
relation  and  of  rational  purpose.  It  must  therefore 
be  self-poised  and  self-active  in  absolute  degree. 

To  nothing  less  than  such  perfect  Mind  can  the 
descent  of  man  be  legitimately  (that  is,  by  any  strictly 
scientific  process)  traced. 

Consideration  of  the  metaphysical  aspect  of  the 
question,  then,  would  seem  to  justify  us  in  concluding 
that  as  man  (in  so  far  as  he  is  mind)  must  be  conceived 
as  descended  from  (that  is,  as  arising  through,  and 
constituting  the  culminating  aspect  of)  the  creative 
self-unfolding  of  the  primal  perfect  Mind,  he  must  be 
credited  with  fundamentally  the  same  characteristics 
as  those  inhering  in  the  primal  Mind  itself. 

And  it  has  just  been  noted  that  self-activity — that 


SUBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  35 

is,  self-determination — is  the  central  characteristic  of 
that  Mind. 

How  this  characteristic  can  be  conceived  as  unfold- 
ing into  reality  in  man — in  other  words,  how  man  as 
man  can  be  conceived  as  actually  coming  into  existence 
- — this  again  pertains  to  the  historical  aspect  of  the 
question  as  to  the  way  in  which  the  human  Will  is 
actually  determined.  It  is  of  course  impossible  here 
to  more  than  barely  indicate  the  chief  aspects  of  the 
question  together  with  the  central  conclusions  which 
it  seems  possible  to  reach  by  inquiry  along  these  lines. 

Let  us  note  in  the  first  place  that  by  the  very  con- 
ception of  a  mind  evolved  through  the  process  of 
heredity  each  mind  must  be  unique  in  the  actual  degree 
and  in  the  special  trend  of  its  development. 

Its  actual  relations  are  therefore  also  unique.  Hence 
its  reactions  upon  the  stimuli  it  receives  from  its  envi- 
ronment cannot  be  a  mere  repetition  of  reactions  of 
any  of  its  ancestors  upon  the  then  existing  environ- 
ment. It  is  at  any  moment  appealed  to  by  many 
forms  of  stimuli  and  in  any  given  case  responds  to 
bnt  one.  As  mind  its  reactions  upon  stimuli  involve 
intellectual  estimate  as  well  as  mere  momentary  impulse 
or  feeling.  But  intellectual  estimate  consists  in  com- 
parison —  in  holding  two  or  more  representations  in 
consciousness  as  forms  of  possible  activity  and  result; 
and  this  in  such  way  as  not  merely  to  compare  the 
forms  themselves,  but  also  so  as  to  compare  the  results 


36  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

of  realizing  the  two  forms  through  one's  own  individ- 
ual action  and  in  one's  own  individual  experience. 
Further,  while  in  such  comparison  the  activity  of  the 
mind  may  be  said  primarily  to  take  place  in  time,  it 
is  also  evident  that  in  all  its  intellectual  representations 
of  possible  actions  the  mind  takes  up  the  form  of  suc- 
cession (time)  into  its  own  activity.  Or  rather  it  may 
be  said  to  unfold  that  form  in  the  very  process  of  its 
own  activity,  seeing  that  it  apprehends  the  order  of  suc- 
cession necessary  in  a  given  represented  series  of  acts. 
Nay  in  this  very  fact  of  representing  to  itself  a  series 
the  mind  includes  past  and  future  in  the  present,  and 
thus  transcends  time  as  a  mere  succession  of  activities. 
The  mind  is  not  a  stretched-out  chain  of  experiences; 
it  is  a  present,  self-unfolding  totality  of  experiences. 

I  am  tiow  aware  of  what  happened  to  w\q  yesterday : 
and  I  am  now  aware  of  it  because  whatever  has  passed 
hitherto  in  my  consciousness  is  now  present  in  its 
results  in  my  actual  individual  (and  that  means  indi- 
visible) conscious  existence.  My  own  consciousness  is 
always  the  central  factor  in  every  experience  I  have. 
That  factor  (emphasizing  as  it  does  the  indissoluble, 
absolutely  continuous  icnity  of  my  existence)  is,  indeed, 
always  undergoing  modification  in  extent,  in  clearness, 
in  intensity.  But  it  is  ever  for  me  the  one  possible 
measure  of  both  itself  and  all  other  things.  (Even 
when  I  refer  most  deliberately  to  an  objectively  valid 
standard  I  do  so,  and  can  do  so,  only  through  the  fact 


SUBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  37 

that  I  have  taken  up  into  my  own  consciousness,  as  one 
aspect  of  it,  precisely  that  standard.  In  becoming 
aware  of  it  1  recognize  it  as  independent  of  my  con- 
sciousness; but  also  in  becoming  aware  of  it  I  appro- 
priate it  as  a  fact  of  my  consciousness.)  As  a  conscious 
unit  the  mind  does  indeed  respond  to  stimuli  coming 
from  without,  but  it  responds,  and  must  respond,  in 
its  own  way.  That  is,  it  must,  from  its  very  nature  as 
a  deliberative  unit,  decide  between  one  and  another 
possible  way  of  responding  to  such  stimuli.  And  in 
just  this  process  of  deciding  between  tlie  various 
apprehended  ways  of  responding  to  these  stimuli 
(which  as  represented  in  consciousness  constitute 
motives)  the  mind  proves  itself  to  be,  from  its  very  con- 
stitution as  mind,  a  self-active,  self-determining  unit 
of   Energy. 

Indeed,  while  it  deliberates,  and  in  the  very  fact  that 
it  deliberates,  upon  a  given  course  of  action  it  refrains 
from  such  course  of  action.  And  this  very  refraining 
from  action  is  itself  a  form  of  self-activity,  of  self-de- 
termination. Nor  can  it  be  too  strongly  insisted  upon 
that  it  is  precisely  in  such  process  that  the  mind  proves 
to  be  always  in  its  essential,  typical  nature  the  one 
truly  self-active,  and  therefore  Ethical  unit,  and  that 
this  typical  nature  progressively  unfolds  into  realiza- 
tion in  each  normal  {i.e.,  law-abiding)  individual  Will. 

And  this  conclusion  is  confirmed  by  a  study  of  mind 
in  all  its  relations,  sensuous,  social,  and  cosmic.    The 


38  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

higher  the  degree  of  Will  considered  the  more  unques- 
tionable becomes  the  conclusion. 

At  the  very  beginning  of  its  own  particular  existence 
no  doubt  the  individual  mind  is  merely  initial.  Its 
typical  nature  is  as  yet,  for  it,  mainly  an  abstract  form, 
a  mere  unfulfilled  possibility.  But  every  normal  reac- 
tion upon  the  environment,  in  its  character  of  a 
rational  World-Order,  only  tends  to  fulfil  that  possi- 
bility and  thus  empirically  to  demonstrate  in  ever 
higher  degree  the  validity  of  the  abstractly  conceived 
universal  or  typical  form. 

It  is  next  to  be  noted  that  in  the  entire  process  of 
its  self-unfolding  the  individual  mind  as  Will,  no  less 
than  in  its  character  as  Intelligence,  necessarily  pre- 
sents both  a  subjective  and  an  objective  aspect.  At 
the  same  time  only  the  barest  intimation  can  be  given 
here  of  the  distinction  between,  and  the  extent  of, 
these  two  phases  of  the  Will— phases  which,  in  their 
various  degrees  of  realization,  may  be  designated 
respectively  as  subjective  Freedom  and  objective  Freedom. 

When  I  deliberate  and  compare  any  two  forms  of 
representation  in  my  own  mind  I  am  by  that  very  fact 
controlling  the  modes  of  myself  as  mind.  That  is,  in 
such  case  my  activity,  whatever  its  extent,  is  in  its 
nature  self-activity. 

It  is  such  inner  self-activity  that  constitutes  subjec- 
tive freedom. 

But  the  representations  developed  in,  as  modes  of, 


SUBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS,  39 

my  mind  and  held  in  consciousness  bv  my  own  delib- 
erate (and  deliberative)  act  may  yet  have  direct  refer- 
ence to  my  practical  relation  to  one  or  another  phase 
of  my  environment. 

I  compare  a  past  action  with  a  proposed  action  and 
infer  the  character  of  the  results  to  be  expected  in  case 
the  proposed  action  is  really  performed. 

This  inference  is  now  a  new  mode  in  (and  of)  my 
own  mind  and  becomes  a  positive  factor  in  determin- 
ing me  to  act  (or  to  refrain  from  acting)  in  the  way 
proposed. 

Whence  it  is  evident  that  my  practical  relation  to 
my  environment  is  thus  far  determinec^by  my  own 
practical  self-definition  {i.e.,  self-differentiation)  as 
toward  any  given  aspect  which  such  environment  may 
present  to  me.  In  my  response  to  stimuli  coming  to 
me  from  my  environment  I  not  only  apprehend  this 
as  it  is,  but  I  also,  through  the  interfusion  of  the  par- 
ticular mode  immediately  formed  in  my  mind  through 
such  response  with  similar  modes  already  unfolded  in 
my  own  consciousness  through  past  experiences,  create 
an  ideal  of  what  the  environment  is  not  but  which  I 
conceive  it  ought  to  be.  And  in  pursuance  of  such 
conception  I  proceed  to  exert  mv  power  toward  shap- 
ing the  environment  into  conformity  with  the  ideals  I 
have  created.  In  other  words  I  carry  my  creative 
activity  into  the  world  (physical  and  social)  by  which 
I  am  surrounded  and  in  and  through  which  I  live  and 


40  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

move  and  have  my  being.  It  is  the  immediate  source 
of  my  life.  And  yet  through  my  reaction  upon  the 
stimuli  coming  from  this  source  my  life  rises  to  a 
degree  which  can  and  does  in  greater  or  less  measure 
control  and  reconstitute  that  world.  And  further,  it 
is  precisely  in  this  fact  that  the  individual  mind  reveals 
its  truly  practical,  creative  character  as  one  in  type 
with  the  ultimate  divine  Source  of  all  Life  and  above 
all  of  all  Mind  as  the  culminating  phase  of  Life. 

It  is  in  this  world-controlling,  world-reconstituting 
activity  that  the  human  mind  as  Will  is  concretely 
unfolded  and  in  which  it  exhibits  progressively  what 
may  properly  be  named  Objective  Freedom. 

At  the  same  time  the  limitations  of  actually  attained 
freedom,  whether  subjective  or  objective,  in  the  case 
of  any  individual  human  Will  are  evident  enough.  On 
the  other  hand  it  is  equally  evident  that  actual  freedom 
is  to  be  attained,  and  only  to  be  attained,  through  con- 
formity to  the  laws  inhering  in  the  very  nature  of  mind. 
I  can  wi'eMthe  world  only  in  so  far  as  I  comprehend  \\\^ 
world.  I  must  assimilate  the  world  in  my  intelligenec 
in  order  that  as  a  Will  I  may  appropriate  it  to  myself. 
I  must  know  the  reason  of  things  (and  Reason  is  of 
their  very  essence)  before  I  can  command  them  into 
forms  expressive  of  my  own  reason.  It  is  only  as  I 
think  the  Thought  of  the  World,  out  of  (and  yet  within) 
which  I  as  a  thinking  unit  have  arisen  ;  it  is  only  as  I 
will  the  Will  involved  in  the  infinite  Thought  of  that 


SUBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  4 1 

World,  that  I  give  objective  proof  of  my  own  free- 
dom, which  proof  consists  in  my  creatively  moulding 
the  world  into  my  own  image  and  likeness.  But  also 
it  is  only  by  forgetting  myself  in  fullest  obedience  to 
the  Eternal,  divine  Law  of  the  World  that  I  can,  even 
little  by  little,  attain  actual  self-realization  including 
the  fundamental  aspect  of  freedom  both  subjective  and 
objective.  Only  by  losing  the  life  of  caprice  can  I 
find  the  life  of  Reason.  In  this  fundamental  sense 
no  one  ever  was  or  could  be  born  free,  for  Freedom  is 
the  goal,  the  culmination  of  disciplined  self-conscious 
being. 

Absolutely  free  in  point  of  essential  nature  every 
mind  must  be.  Absolutely  free  in  point  of  perfect 
realization  only  one  can  be,  and  that  is  the  Eternal, 
perfect  Mind. 

Ill  Virtue  and  the  Virtues.  If  in  its  universal 
form  as  a  Power-to-do,  Mind  as  Will  is  seen  to  be  the 
one  really  ethical  unit,  then  evidently  it  is  well  worth 
while  to  inquire  more  precisely  what  are  the  positive 
phases  in  which  such  ethical  unit  is  to  realize  its 
actual  existence.  And  first  it  may  be  noted  that  as 
Conscience  is  the  ethical  aspect  of  Consciousness  so 
Virtue  may  be  said  to  be  the  name  applied  to  the  Will 
as  already  become  concretely  unfolded.  Virtue  is 
concrete;  it  is  concretely  differentiated  Will.  Again 
it  may  be  said  that  Virtue  consists  in  a  normal  life — 
that  is,   it  consists   in   practical  and  progressive  con- 


42  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

formity  on  the  part  of  the  individual  to  the  universal 
norm  or  type  of  human  life.  That  norm  may  be  re- 
garded as  consisting  of  the  absolute  demands  of  Rea- 
son; or  again  it  may  be  conceived  as  being  identi- 
cal with  the  "divine  Law."  For  these  can  really  be 
scientifically  conceived  in  no  other  way  than  as  iden- 
tical. Observe,  too,  that  only  through  conformity  to 
the  true  norm  of  life  can  the  individual  develop  real 
force  of  character,  in  which  Virtue  actually  consists. 

But  this  universal  aspect  of  Virtue  can  be  really 
unfolded  into  concrete  form  only  through  differenti- 
ation into  those  specific  aspects  or  modes  called  "  the 
Virtues."  And  here  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  true  Vir- 
tue, or  realized  harmony  with  the  divine  Law  of  Rea- 
son, implies  (i)  knowledge  of  that  Law  and  (2)  obe- 
dience to  that  Law.  Virtue  can  be  conceived  as 
pertaining  to  no  other  being  than  one  characterized 
at  once  by  Intelligence  and  by  Will.  The  first  of  these 
is  realized  as  knowledge  of  the  essential  aspects  of 
rhythm  in  the  total  World-Order.  This  rhythm  again 
may  be  described  as  unison  (a)  in  the  physical  aspects 
of  the  World-Order,  and  (/>)  in  its  spiritual  aspects.  It 
is  (as  need  hardly  be  said)  within  the  range  of  the 
spiritual  aspects  of  the  World- Order  that  Virtue  finds 
its  true  field  of  practical  exercise  and  actual  develop- 
ment. Nevertheless  all  knowledge  has  of  itself  an 
ethical  aspect,  since  it  cannot  be  separated  from  an 
appreciation  (in  the  form   of    feeling)  of   the  various 


SUBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  43 

aspects  of  the  rhythm  of  the  World-Order.  Beauty 
and  sublimity  are  not  merely  seen,  they  are  also  fe/i. 
The  unison  everywhere  manifest  in  the  total  World- 
Energy  is  not  merely  apprehended,  it  is  also  trusted. 
But  thus  far  we  have  only  the  contemplative  aspect 
of  Virtue — the  mere  intellectual  apprehension  of  the 
rhythm  of  the  World-Order,  together  with  the  experi- 
ence of  simple  pleasure  in  it  as  thus  apprehended. 
It  is  the  complement  of  this  —  the  active  effort  to 
reproduce  that  rhythm  in  human  life — with  which 
Ethics  has  chiefly  to  do.  In  this  sense  Virtue  may  be 
defined  as  actual  obedience,  in  the  concrete  form  of 
genial  responsiveness  in  practical  life,  to  the  demands 
of  the  divine  Law  of  Reason  (positively,  to  do  what 
that  law  demands;  negatively,  to  refrain  from  doing 
what  it  forbids).  From  this  point  of  view  Virtue  is 
seen  to  present  three  fundamental  and  mutually  com- 
plementary aspects.  These  are  (i)  Temperanee  or 
self-restraint;  (2)  Courage  or  assured  sense  of  power; 
and  (3)  Justiee  or  disposition  toward  the  deliberate 
self-restrained  exercise  of  power  to  the  recognized 
end  of  the  actual  unfolding  of  rational  life  in  and 
through  the  individual  Will.  We  may  regard  these  as 
the  generic  aspects  of  Virtue  within  the  sphere  of 
Ethics  strictly  speaking  (which  does  not  explicitly  treat 
of  the  special  aspects  of  Virtue  known  as  "theologi- 
cal," however  much  these  aspects  may  be  presupposed 
in  every  phase  of  ethical  inquiry).    Only  the  barest  inti- 


44  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

mation  can  here  be  given  of  the  further  differentiation 
of  Virtue  into  its  various  specific  forms  constituting 
the  so-called  Virtues.  All  "Virtues,"  let  it  be  ob- 
served, are  necessarily  individual  in  character  and  so- 
cial in  their  manifestation. 

A.  Temperance  constitutes  primarily  the  negative 
aspect  of  Virtue.  It  consists  essentially  in  self- 
control. 

1.  As  individual,  Temperance  is  (<?)  Restraint  of  the 
physical  appetites  within  the  limits  (i)  of  physical 
health  and  (2)  of  the  complete  subordination  of  the 
physical  nature  as  organ  or  instrument  to  the  spiritual 
nature  as  agent.  Again  {p)  it  is  Restraint  of  the 
spiritual  appetites  (all  forms  of  egoism)  within  the 
limits  (i)  of  psychical  health  and  (2)  of  complete  sub- 
ordination of  the  lower  (less  complex,  poorer,)  to  the 
higher  (more  complex,  richer,)  spiritual  aims.  (The 
chief,  all-inclusive  aim  of  life  is  Life  itself^life  in 
ever  richer  degree;  self-realization  in  the  highest,  /.  e. 
most  adequate,  sense  of  the  term.) 

2.  As  social,  Temperance  is  (a)  Restraint  of  physi- 
cal appetites  within  the  limits  of  rights  in  property 
and  of  rights  of  personal  security,  comfort  and  purity 
on  the  part  of  others.  Such  restraint  is  manifest 
under  the  forms  of  Truthfulness,  Honesty,  Civility, 
Chastity,  etc. 

Again,  as  social.  Temperance  is  {h)  Restraint  of 
spiritual  appetites  (the  various  subtler  forms  of  egoism 


V'  OF  THK        ^r 

UNIVERSITY 
SUBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF~ETHTcS.  45 

— amounting  to  egotism — such  as  Pride,  Haughtiness, 
Arrogance)  within  the  limits  of  respect  due  to  the  per- 
sonahty  (that  is,  to  the  ideal  or  divinely  constituted 
nature)  of  all  others.  ("  Be  a  person  and  respect 
others  as  personsr) — Such  restraint  is  manifest  under 
the  forms  of  Modesty,  Gentleness,  Delicacy,  Amia- 
bility, Sympathy,  Forbearance,  etc. 

B.     Courage  is  Virtue  in  \X.s  positive  aspect. 

1.  As  individual,  (a)  it  is  rationally  directed  physi- 
cal energy — the  buoyant  sense  of  physical  power 
to  shape  external  conditions  (the  sensuous  environ- 
ment) into  forms  that  shall  serve  as  efficient  means  to 
the  highest  spiritual  life  of  the  individual.  But  also 
(/;)  it  is  rationally  directed  spiritual  energy — the  buoy- 
ant sense  of  spiritual  power  to  shape  one's  own  reso- 
lutions in  conformity  with  Right  (that  is,  in  conform- 
ity with  the  ultimate,  divine  Reason). — The  special 
forms  here  are  Sincerity,  Propriety,  Conscientious- 
ness, etc. 

2.  As  social,  Courage  is  (r?)  rationally  directed  phys- 
ical energy — the  buoyant  sense  of  physical  power  (i) 
negatively,  to  defend  one's  family,  one's  country, 
against  all  unjust  attack  (to  hinder  the  irrational 
shaping  of  the  environment),  and  (2)  positively,  to 
contribute  to  the  improvement  of  these  institutional 
media  for  self-realization  on  the  part  of  the  indi- 
vidual. Here  the  special  forms  are  Bravery,  Reso- 
luteness, Discretion,  etc. 


46  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

As  social,  Courage  is  also  (^)  rationally  directed 
spiritual  energy — the  buoyant  sense  of  spiritual  power 
(i)  negatively  to  convince  others  of  error  and  (2) 
positively  to  win  them  to  the  acceptance  of  rational 
modes  of  life.  —  The  special  forms  here  are  Im- 
partiality,  Candor,  Dignity,  etc. 

The  preceding  Virtues  (aspects  of  Virtue)  are  found 
again  and  finally,  to  present  their  concrete  unity  in 

C.  Justice,  which  is  realized  rational  life,  individual 
and  social — that  is,  human  life,  conformed  to  the 
demands  of  Reason.  Such,  in  briefest  intimation,  are 
the  leading  characteristics  of  the  subjective  aspect  of 
Ethics.  (And  here  we  may  name  the  three  "theolog- 
ical Virtues"  —  Faith,  Hope  and  Love  —  as  in  truth 
the  factors  that  really  transfigure  life — Faith  in  the 
divine  [rational]  order  of  the  world  ;  Hope,  of  end- 
lessly progressive  self-realization  ;  and  Love,  in  the 
sense  of  devotion  to  the  purpose  of  aiding  others 
toward  the  same  self-realization.) 

And  yet,  even  in  so  inadequate  a  sketch  as  the 
one  here  presented,  it  has  already  many  times  become 
evident  that  the  subjective  aspect  must  be  meaningless 
and  impossibleof  realization  save  through  its  correlative 
objective  aspect.  Human  life  cannot  be  realized  in 
individual  form  only.  The  individual  is  no  more  pos- 
sible without  society  than  is  society  without  the  indi- 
vidual. Hence  any  attempt  to  develop  a  system  of 
ethical  science  must,  either  explicitly  or  implicitly,  take 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  47 

into  account  this  reciprocal  relation  of  the  two  aspects 
involved.  Thus  far,  indeed,  the  scientific  treatises  on 
Ethics  have  chiefly  emphasized  the  subjective  aspect, 
while  on  the  other  hand  in  oui  time  much  is  coming 
to  be  said  of  so-called  practical  Ethics;  by  which 
term,  as  would  seem,  it  is  intended  to  put  chief  stress 
on  what  is  here  called  the  objective  aspect  of  Ethics. 
In  real  truth  both  aspects  are  equally  "  practical  "  and, 
as  just  insisted,  they  are  so  intimately  related  as  to  be 
absolute  reciprocals  in  every  phase  and  degree  of 
actual  life.  And  hence  in  any  consistent  and  adequate 
system  of  Ethics  considered  as  the  science  of  Right- 
living  this  reciprocal  relation  between  the  subjective 
and  the  objective  aspects  of  actual  moral  life  must  of 
course  be  brought  into  clearest  possible  relief. 

B.     OBJECTIVE  ASPECT  OF  ETHICS. 

It  is  within  the  sphere  of  the  subjective  aspect  of 
Ethics  that  the  proper  ])lace  is  found  for  the  consid- 
eration of  Virtue  and  its  various  specialized  phases, 
"  the  Virtues."  On  the  other  hand  the  formal  in- 
vestigation of  Rights  and  Duties  falls  as  manifestly 
within  the  sphere  of  the  objective  aspect  of  Ethics. 
Or  rather  these  constitute  the  central,  essential  signifi- 
cance of  that  aspect.  Rights  and  duties  are  relations 
between  human  beings.  Or  strictly  speaking  Right 
and  Duty  are  but  complementary  aspects  of  each  and 
every  relation  subsisting  between  human  beings. 


48  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

What  is  B's  right  is  A's  duty;  and  conversely  what 
is  B's  duty  is  A's  right.  Further,  B's  actual  perform- 
ance of  his  own  duty  to  A  is  a  necessary  condition  of 
B's  own  highest  interest.  In  which  sense  B's  duty  is 
also  B's  right.  Again  B's  right  is  a  necessary  con- 
dition to  his  being  able  to  perform  his  full  duty  to  A. 
Hence  B's  right  is  at  the  same  time  B's  duty.  I  have 
a  right  to  perform  all  my  real  duties ;  and  it  is  my  duty 
to  realize  all  my  essential  rights.  Only  through  the 
interfusion  of  Right  and  Duty  can  either  Right  or 
Duty  be  more  than  the  merest  abstraction.  The 
objective  aspect  of  Ethics,  then,  has  to  do  with  the 
various  forms  through  which  all  associated  human 
activity  is  expressed.  And  these  forms  consist  of  the 
various  institutions  to  which  human  society  has 
given  rise  and  through  which  human  society  has 
unfolded.  They  are  (i)  Property,  (2)  the  Family, 
(3)  the  State,  (4)  the  School  and  (5)  the  Church. 
Ethics  in  its  strictly  constructive  character  as  a  science 
has  not  to  describe  or  account  for  these  institutions. 
Its  task  is  to  trace  their  significance  as  media  in  the 
unfolding  of  the  human  spirit.  And  before  proceed- 
ing to  indicate  the  analysis  of  these  several  institu- 
tional forms  it  may  be  remarked  that  Property  presents 
the  form  of  relation  of  individual  to  individual  and 
to  the  community  through  things;  that  the  Family 
constitutes  the  form  of  direct  relation  of  individual  to 
individual  and  of  the  individual   to  a  limited  group 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  49 

bound  together  by  the  (mainly  instinctive)  bond  of 
consanguinity;  that  the  State  consists  of  an  organic- 
ally realized  system  of  relations  between  individual 
and  individual  and  between  the  individual  and  the 
community  irrespective  of  ties  of  consanguinity,  the 
end  being  the  present  security  and  well-being  of  the 
citizens;  that  the  School  has  for  its  ethical  end  to 
clarify  the  conscience  of  the  individual  and  thus  to 
secure  consistent,  self-conscious,  deliberate  right- 
doing  on  his  part;  and  finally  that  the  Church  (in  its 
strictly  ethical  character)  is  the  progressively  realized 
system  of  relations  between  individual  and  individual 
and  between  each  individual  and  the  object  of  worship 
so  far  as  the  latter  phase  of  relationship  is  unfolded 
through  the  community.  Here  the  end  is  evidently 
the  ideal  ultimate  security  and  w^ell-being  of  the  in- 
dividual members  of  the  community. 

Evidently,  then.  Ethics  presents  an  Economic  and 
a  Social  as  well  as  a  religious  and  theological  aspect; 
just  as,  on  the  other  hand,  Economics,  Social  Philo- 
sophy and  Theology  are  essentially  ethical  in  char- 
acter and  may  be  classed  as  specialized  departments 
of  the  science  of  Ethics  in  its  wider  range. 

Without  further  preliminary  the  following  is  offered 
as  a  condensed  analysis  of  the  various  essential  phases 
of  the  objective  aspect  of  Ethics. 

I.     Property.     Here  two  phases  are  presented  in 
contrast  one  with  the  other. 
4 


50  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

A.  Positive  Aspect.  The  first  of  these  phases  is 
that  in  which  the  Will  expresses  itself  in  things  as 
Property;  and  here  there  are  three  distinct  degrees  of 
the  adequacy  in  which  the  Will  finds  expression  in 
and  through  things. 

(i)  The  first  of  these  degrees  consists  in  the  mere 
appropriation  of  objects  pertaining  to  the  physical 
world  (including  animals).  Here  it  is  necessarily  pre- 
supposed that  any  object  thus  appropriated  pertains 
as  yet  to  the  "  Unclaimed  Bounty  of  Nature."  Other- 
wise there  must  be  developed  the  Ethical  contradic- 
tion of  conflicting  claims  on  the  part  of  two  Wills 
each  seeking  self-realization. 

Thus  it  is  at  once  evident  that  in  every  case  of  such 
appropriation  the  individual  Will,  in  the  very  fact  of 
such  appropriation,  really  assumes  a  specifically  new  re- 
lation to  each  and  every  other  Will.  For  such  act  of 
appropriation  necessarily  presupposes  the  consent  of 
all  other  Wills.  Not  otherwise  can  the  act  itself  be 
accomplished  nor  its  result  (possession)  be  maintained. 

(2)  But  possession  implies  use,  and  use  again  im- 
plies adaptation — that  is  Modification  in  form  or  in 
quality,  or  in  both  form  and  quality,  of  the  thing  ap- 
propriated. Such  modification  is  the  visible  expres- 
sion of  the  individual  Will  as  guided  by  a  purpose. 
Such  purpose,  again,  is  an  Ideal;  and  the  modifica- 
tion of  the  given  thing  (thus  reduced  to  the  grade  of 
mere  "  Material  ")   consists   in  shaping  it  into  con- 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  5 1 

formity  with  the  given  Ideal.  The  result  is  an  imple- 
ment (answering  the  demands  of  Utility)  or  an  art- 
work (answering  the  demand  for  the  Beautiful).  And 
it  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that  both  are  but  media  iit 
the  self-realization  of  mind  and  have  no  other  real  signifi- 
ea/iee.  In  such  work  of  transformation  the  expression 
of  Will  is  of  a  highly  complex  character;  and  this  for 
the  reason  that  there  is  involved  therein  a  distinctly 
higher  degree  of  maturity  of  Will.  And  this  means 
that  a  more  adequate  practical  definition  (in  the  sense 
of  self-differentiation)  of  Will  has  been  attained 
through  greater  clearness  and  complexity  and  force  of 
intellectual  activity;  and  not  only  so,  but  in  every 
phase  of  work  within  this  entire  sphere  the  individual 
Will  is  brought  into  specially  close  and  complex  rela- 
tion with  other  Wills. 

On  the  one  hand  in  working  out  his  own  purposes 
the  individual  is  constantly  appealing  to  others  for 
recognition  of  his  skill  as  expressed  in  the  forms  he 
gives  to  the  "  Material"  at  his  disposal.  On  the  other 
hand  the  very  ideals  which  the  individual  endeavors 
to  work  out  into  full  measure  of  Reality  are  after  all 
not  merely  his  ideals.  Rather  does  he  appropriate 
ideals  already  formed  through  the  experience  of  the 
race.  At  most  he  but  modifies  and  recombines  such 
race-formed  ideals.  Through  such  work  the  person- 
ality of  the  individual  becomes  conformed  to  that  of 
the  race. 


52  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

(3)  A  Still  further  and  higher  degree  in  the  devel- 
opment of  Will  by  means  of  Property  is  attained 
through  the  medium  of  a  recognized  Sign.  An  ex- 
ample of  the  simplest  form  of  such  sign  may  be  found 
in  a  brand,  as  on  cattle,  or  in  the  name  on  a  package 
to  be  delivered  (the  latter  being  a  form  applicable  to 
all  merchandise).  Such  mark  is  the  effective  outei 
form  of  the  Will  throughout  all  civilized  countries. 
On  the  other  hand  the  most  adequate  form  of  the 
Sign  as  the  outer  form  of  the  Will  is  that  of  the  Deed 
as  an  instrument  giving  formal  expression  to  the  rela- 
tion subsisting  between  an  individual  Will  and  the  col- 
lective Will  of  the  whole  community — that  is,  the 
State.  And  this  formal  expression  of  such  relation  is 
to  the  effect  that  the  individual  is  formally  recognized 
as  having  exclusive  right  to  hold  and  use  during  his 
pleasure  (but  subject  to  taxation)  a  given  portion  of 
land.  And  since  all  commodities  are  obtained  from 
the  land  it  is  evident  that  the  Deed  \?,  the  form  guar- 
anteeing to  the  individual  the  right  to  the  prime  orig- 
inal means  of  his  own  physical  self-preservation,  which 
in  turn  is  but  the  condition  precedent  to  his  own 
self-maturing  as  a  self-conscious  unit.  The  land  is 
"  r^«/"  property — the  permanent,  real  Possibility  of 
all  possible  forms  of  property.  Hence  all  activity  of 
the  individual  in  respect  of  property  must  refer  ulti- 
mately to  land.  But  the  act  of  the  individual  is  a 
deed — the  outer,  organic  form  of  his  Will.     And  be- 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  53 

cause  assured  possession  in  use  of  land  is  necessary  to 
a  production  of  property  of  any  Icind  vvliatever,  it  is 
evidently  indispensable  to  the  existence  of  society 
as  the  necessary  medium  for  the  self-realization  of 
the  individual  that  the  universal  Will  of  the  com- 
munity should  assume  a  clearly  defined  objective 
form,  assuring  to  the  individual  such  undisturbed  use 
of  a  given  portion  of  land.  It  is  just  this  clearly  de- 
fined objective,  organic  form  of  the  communal  Will  in 
such  case  that  is  properly  and  significantly  called  a 
Deed.  It  is  the  form  or  instrument  in  which  indi- 
vidual Will  and  communal  Will  coincide. 

But  thus  far  we  have  only  intimated  the  essential 
ways  in  which  Will  may  realize  itself  through  and 
embody  itself  in  Property.  This  is  but  the  positive 
aspect  of  the  ethical  import  of  Property.  The  nega- 
tive aspect  is  next  to  be  noticed. 

B.  Negative  Aspect.  This  negative  aspect  consists 
in  Modes  of  withdrawing  the  Will  from  things  as  Prop- 
erty. 

(i)  As  in  the  positive  aspect  the  simplest  phase  is 
mere  appropriation;  so  in  the  negative  aspect  the 
simplest  phase  is  the  mere  abandonment  of  what  is 
already  in  possession.  And  here  it  is  essential  to 
notice  that  the  abandonment  of  property  is  ethically 
justifiable  only  when  the  thing  in  possession  no  longer 
has  any  real  value — onlv,  therefore,  when  it  has  ceased 
to  be  real  as  property ;  that  is,  when   it  has  ceased  to 


54  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

be  in  any  proper  sense  of  the  term  the  outer  form  of 
the  Will.  In  this  case,  then,  the  withdrawal  of  the 
Will  in  "abandonment"  is  merely  formal.  Though 
there  must  still  remain  the  Ethical  demand  that  the 
abandonment  shall  not  be  in  such  manner  as  to  prove 
an  occasion  of  injury  to  others. 

(2)  In  withdrawing  the  Will  from  things  as  property 
through  simple  abandonment  the  relation  of  the  indi- 
vidual Will  to  other  Wills  is  implicit  even  in  precisely 
the  same  degree  (though  in  inverse  order)  as  in  the 
expression  of  the  Will  in  things  through  simple  appro- 
priation. In  point  of  real  import,  however,  the  rela- 
tion is  still,  even  at  this  stage,  a  thoroughly  real  and 
valid  one  in  both  the  positive  and  the  negative  phase. 

In  the  second  stage  of  withdrawal  of  the  Will  from 
things  as  property  the  relation  of  the  individual  Will 
to  other  Wills  (more  commonly  to  one  other  Will)  is 
explicit  and  direct.  Here  the  simplest  form  of  with- 
drawal is  that  of  Gift.  But  this  necessarily  implies 
the  acceptance  of  the  gift. 

But  thus  the  actual  withdrawal  of  the  one  Will  from 
the  given  object  is  possible  only  in  so  far  as  at  the 
same  moment  another  Will  affirms  itself  in  the  same 
object.  The  Gift  is  thus  a  joint  act  of  two  Wills,  and 
can  take  place  upon  no  other  condition. 

Such  in  simplest  form,  is  the  ethical  ground  of  the 
Gift.  In  point  of  detail  it  is  impossible  in  a  summa- 
rized view  like  the  present  to  do  more  than  merely  in- 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  55 

dicate  the  limits  of  the  moral  right  to  give  and  receive 
presents  :  namely,  within  the  family  group,  including 
friends  who  have  acquired  a  relationship  similar  in 
character.  Beyond  this  range  the  gift  must  be  im- 
moral as  implying  obligation;  the  greater  the  prop- 
erty value  of  the  gift  the  greater  the  sense  of  obliga- 
tion; that  is,  the  greater  the  hindrance  to  subsequent 
free  activity  on  the  part  of  the  one  receiving  the  gift; 
while  the  one  making  the  gift  must  suffer  moral  in- 
jury in  the  form  of  confused  and  exaggerated  notions 
as  to  his  own  claims  upon  the  one  to  whom  the  "gift" 
is  made.  Further,  the  moral  quality  of  a  gift  must  de- 
pend in  part  upon  the  means  of  the  giver.  If  in  any 
case,  for  any  purpose,  I  make  a  gift  of  my  means  to 
such  extent,  no  matter  how  limited,  as  in  any  measure 
to  put  it  beyond  my  power  to  meet  my  own  just  obli- 
gations, then  the  gift  is  thus  far  an  immoral  act. 

(3)  But  a  further  and  still  more  adequate  form  of 
the  expression  of  Will  in  property  is  that  of  Exchange. 
In  every  case  of  exchange  the  entire  process  of  the 
creation  of  property  is  already  presupposed  (the  pro- 
cess itself  consisting  of  the  appropriation  and  trans- 
formation of  material  things  rendering  them  suited  to 
special  human  uses).  Ethically,  then,  each  party  to  an 
exchange  is  presumed  I0  be  already  rationally  devel- 
oped as  a  Will.  It  is  further  presumed  that  this  pro- 
cess has  been  creative  of  values  the  immediate  outer 
concrete  form  of  which  is  that  of  the  particular  articles 


56  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

to  be  exchanged.  But  each  has  produced  more  of 
some  one  kind  of  commodity  than  he  can  consume 
and  has  produced  nothing  of  that  kind  of  property 
resulting  from  the  work  of  the  other.  Yet  each 
requires  for  his  own  well-being  some  part  of  what  the 
other  has  produced.  Each  therefore  can  without  loss 
give  up  to  the  other  a  part  of  his  own  product  and 
receive  with  advantage  a  part  of  the  product  of  the 
other.  Each  has  what  the  other  lacks  and  lacks  what 
the  other  has.  An  exchange,  therefore,  will  be  to  the 
benefit  of  each.  Here,  too,  the  exchange  properly 
speaking  is  the  joint  act  of  the  two  Wills.  Each,  in 
one  and  the  same  act,  withdraws  his  Will  from  one 
object  and  affirms  his  Will  in  another  object. 

And  further,  both  Wills  act  simultaneously  ;  other- 
wise no  exchange  is  effected,  and  neither  Will  has 
really  accomplished  its  own  transfer  from  one  object 
to  another  as  its  own  outer  form  of  manifestation. 

(4)  But  also  in  the  very  fact  that  exchange  con- 
stitutes a  highly  complex  medium  for  the  development 
of  the  Will  as  really  moral,  it  also  proves  to  be  a  ready 
means  for  the  development  of  the  Will  as  immoral. 

Exchange  may  be  unjust  as  well  as  just;  and  it  is 
here  to  be  noted  that  unjust  exchange  presents  three 
distinct  ethical  degrees.  These  we  can  here  do  no 
more  than  merely  enumerate.  The  first  is  due  to 
ignorance  of  the  ethical  principle  applicable  in  the 
given  case ;  or  more  commonly  to  ignorance  of  the 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  57 

actual  ethical  relations  involved.  The  second  degree 
of  immoral  exchange  is  presented  in  cases  where  there 
is  conscious,  deliberate  ignoring  of  the  principle 
involved  and  where  careful  effort  is  made  to  conceal 
(from  the  other  parties  concerned)  the  actual  ethical 
relations  involved,  and  to  deceive  as  to  the  relative 
values  of  the  objects  to  be  exchanged.  This  is  the 
degree  known  as  fraud.  In  the  third  place,  finally, 
the  immoral  purpose  may  become  so  wholly  unre- 
strained as  to  lead  to  o})en  defiance  of  the  ethical 
relations  necessarily  implied  and  thus  to  the  use  of 
violence  in  the  obtaining  of  desired  objects.  Here 
all  pretense  of  exchange  as  such  really  ceases  and 
actual  undisguised  robbery  begins. 

A  glance  through  even  so  summary  a  view  of  the 
ethical  aspects  of  Property  as  that  here  presented  will 
serve  to  show  that  in  each  and  every  stage  Property  is 
possible  only  as  a  form  of  the  manifestation  of  Will 
and  that  as  such  it  necessarily  brings  each  man  into 
relation  with  all  other  men.  Similarly  it  is  precisely 
these  concrete  relations  of  Will  to  Will  as  involved  in 
property  that  constitute  the  indispensable  media  in  the 
elementary  stages  of  the  education  of  the  human  Will. 

And  that  this  relation,  again,  may  be  of  a  moral  or 
of  an  immoral  character  is  not  to  be  overlooked. 

Chiefly  then,  within  this  sphere.  Ethics  as  science  is 
the  tracing  out  of  the  truly  rational  or  just  relations 
of  man  to  man  as  involved  in  the  appropriation  and 


58  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

adaptation  of  things  to  human  uses.  And  even  in 
so  meagre  a  sketch  it  has  already  been  foreshadowed 
as  impossible  that  these  simple  forms  of  relation 
through  things  as  property  can  actually  be  realized 
save  through  the  unfolding  of  the  various  still  more 
complex  forms  of  direct  relation  constituting  the 
essence  of  the  social  world.  For  evidently  the  rela- 
tions of  Will  to  Will  as  involved  in  property  can  be 
realized  only  in  so  far  as  they  are  regulated;  and  this 
necessarily  implies  that  the  social  world  is  already 
more  or  less  definitely  and  consistently  unfolded. 
The  forms  of  relation  involved  in  the  social  world 
will  therefore  next  call  for  analysis. 

11.  The  Family.  The  simplest  forms  of  direct 
relation  between  human  Will  and  human  Will  are  found 
in  the  Family;  and  here  again  certain  specific  phases 
of  relation  appear  as  pertaining  to  the  rational  unfold- 
ing of  the  Family  as  such  : 

A.  The  primary  phase  consists  of  Marriage,  that 
is,  the  Founding  of  the  Family. 

(i)  In  tracing  the  relations  here  necessarily  involved 
it  is  to  be  observed  at  the  outset  that  each  of  the  con- 
tracting parties  in  marriage  is  a  representative  (because 
an  organic  member)  of  an  already  existing  family 
group.  Hence  whatever  each  does  inevitably  affects 
the  entire  group  of  which  he  is  a  member.  So  that 
in  entering  into  the  marriage  relation  the  individual, 
by  uniting  his  life  with   another   life,  adds  that  other 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF   ETHICS.  59 

life  to  the  family  group  of  which  he  is  himself  already 
a  member.  And  because  their  interests  are  thus 
bound  up  with  his  own  he  is  morally  bound  to  consult 
them  upon  the  question  of  the  proposed  union.  To 
ignore  the  convictions  and  interests  of  those  thus 
related  would  amount  to  denial  of  the  universal 
character  of  the  Will.  It  would  in  reality  amount  to 
the  extravagance  of  affirming  that  the  individual's  own 
rights  are  absolutely  without  restriction  and  that 
therefore  the  other  personages  involved  have  no  rights 
that  can  hold  good  in  opposition  to  those  claimed  by 
the  individual. 

And  yet  this  must  be  nothing  less  than  to  assume 
the  more  immediate  resolutions  of  the  individual  Will 
(that  is,  the  mere  determinations  of  caprice)  as  the 
supreme  standard.  But  this  could  only  have  for  its 
effect  to  destroy  society  and  render  the  maturing  of 
the  individual  himself  impossible. 

(2)  It  is,  in  fact,  only  through  association  that  the 
individual  can  attain  maturity  in  any  degree  as  a  self- 
conscious,  self-determined  being.  And  the  family  is 
just  that  form  of  association  through  which  alone  all 
the  finer  qualities  of  character — forbearance,  tender- 
ness, confidence,  love — can  be  nurtured  into  full  vigor 
and  refinement  of  reality.  And  primarily  this  associ- 
ation consists  in  the  fusing  of  two  individualities  into 
one.  This  is,  in  fact,  the  first  step  in  the  clear,  un- 
selfish recognition  of  the  essentially  rational,  universal 


60  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

nature  of  Self-hood.  It  is  the  forgetfulness  of  self 
through  apprehending  the  ideal  Self  in  another  self. 
And  when  this  recognition  is  reciprocal  as  between 
two  Wills  not  otherwise  debarred  there  is  present  the 
true  moral  basis  of  marriage. 

Meanwhile  in  order  that  the  union  may  be  morally 
valid  and  valid  in  full  measure — in  order  that  it  may 
be  really  efficient  as  a  means  to  ethical  maturity  on  the 
part  of  the  personages  involved — it  is  essential  that 
those  personalities  should  bring  to  the  union  a  sub-' 
stantial  basis  of  common  interest  in  respect  of  tastes 
and  of  moral  and  religious  convictions. 

(3)  The  inequality  of  the  sexes  is  not  to  be  ignored. 
Such  inequality  is  at  once  the  product  and  the  meas- 
ure of  civilization.  In  respect  of  massiveness  of 
power  there  can  be  no  question  that  man  is  superior 
to  woman.  In  respect  of  delicacy  of  power  there  can 
be  no  question  that  woman  is  superior  to  man.  These 
differences  are  less  in  savage  races  ;  greater  in  civi- 
lized races.  It  is  not  for  advancing  civilization  to 
reduce  them  but  to  foster  them.  It  is  not  that  massive 
strength  shall  become  coarse  nor  that  '•  delicate  "  shall 
come  to  be  synonymous  with  "  weak."  Power  may 
become  more  refined  while  becoming  more  massive, 
and  grow  more  vigorous  while  increasing  in  delicacy. 
It  is  thus  that  the  man  becomes  more  manly,  the 
woman  more  womanly.  It  is  through  this  increasing 
superiority  of  each   over  the  other  that  the  rational 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  6l 

equality  of  the  two  sexes  (their  absolute  unity  in  ulti- 
mate spiritual  type)  is  to  be  progressively  and  most 
perfectly  demonstrated. 

(4)  It  is  precisely  through  the  differentiation  of  the 
sexes,  brought  about  and  constantly  emphasized  by 
the  whole  course  of  civilization,  that  the  proper  sphere 
of  either  sex  is  determined.  It  is  the  heavy  and 
highly  complex  work,  requiring  prolonged  and  exhaust- 
ing nervous  tension,  that  in  the  true  economy  of  the 
world  falls  naturally  to  man.  On  the  other  hand  the 
delicate,  intermittent  tasks  fall  no  less  naturally  to 
woman.  Whence  it  is  in  the  sphere  of  the  Home 
that  woman  finds  her  natural  sphere  of  activity;  just 
as  man  finds  his  powers  specially  suited  to  the  ruder 
and  more  exhausting  pursuits  of  Commercial  and 
Political  activity. 

But  because  woman's  most  natural  sphere  of  activ- 
ity is  within  the  Home,  and  because  the  Home  is  the 
one  medium  through  which  the  elements  of  person- 
ality can  all  be  securely  and  normally  unfolded  in 
utmost  degree,  it  is  evident  that  he  tessential  Rig/Us 
of  woman  are  to  be  realized  in  precisely  that  degree 
in  which  the  Family  attains,  chiefly  through  her  per- 
formance of  her  duties,  the  true  measure  of  its  prac- 
tical maturitv  as  a  human  institution.  And  further, 
as  there  is  but  one  Type  of  Personality,  in  which  all 
question  of  Sex  as  well  as  of  race  is  completely  merged, 
it  is   evident  that  only  the  monogamic  marriage,  in 


62  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

which  the  essential  equality  of  the  contracting  parties 
is  explicitly  recognized,  can  be  a  truly  moral  one. 

But  again,  genuine  Freedom  means  rational  living. 
And  to  be  truly  rational  in  this  practical  sense  the 
individual  must  conform  his  own  Will  to  the  enlight- 
ened Will  of  the  Race;  and  this  both  in  the  civil  and 
in  the  religious  sense  of  the  term.  Hence,  genuinely 
moral  Marriage  must  have  both  a  civil  and  a  religious 
sanction.  The  interests  of  society  require  this,  and 
the  interests  of  the  individual  as  a  member  of  society 
cannot  possibly  be  (morally)  separated  from  the  gen- 
eral interest.  Ignoring  these  fundamental  organic 
relations  means  practical  self-contradiction,  and  prac- 
tical self-contradiction  means  nothing  less  than  self- 
destruction — that  is,  the  absolute  inversion  of  the  pro- 
cess of  self-realization  in  one  or  another  degree. 

(5)  Finally  it  is  to  be  noted  that  increased  facility 
for  divorce  means  increased  facility  for  destroying  the 
Family  with  all  the  moral  values  which  the  Family  is 
the  sole  medium  for  realizing.  The  Mosaic  law  per- 
mitting divorce  was  truly  declared  to  be  because  of 
the  "  hardness  of  heart  " —  that  is  because  of  the  bar- 
barous condition —  of  the  people  of  that  early  time. 
The  law  of  Reason  recognizes  the  equality  in  nature 
of  all  men — of  all  human  beings.  Hence  each  of 
the  contracting  parties  in  marriage,  being  recognized 
as  having  equal  rights  (and  duties,  which  are  but  the 
obverse  side  of  rights)  with  the  other — being  rec- 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  63 

ognized,  that  is,  as  having  substantial  freedom  —  is 
bound  to  assume  the  full  measure  of  the  consequences 
of  the  relationships  into  which  he  or  she  enters.  The 
more  enlightened  men  become  the  more  justly  are  they 
to  be  held  rigidly  accountable  as  individuals  for  what 
they  as  individuals  do.  Increase  in  facility  of  divorce, 
means  reversion  to  barbarism.  Only  with  complete, 
final  estrangement  through  conduct  that  already 
destroys  the  family  as  a  moral  unit  can  divorce  be 
other  than  immoral. 

B.  The  Relation  between  Parents  and  Children  con- 
stitutes a  further  fundamental  phase  of  the  compound 
life  of  the  Family. 

(i)  The  central  right  of  the  child  as  toward  the 
parent  is,  comprehensively,  that  of  a  totality  of  the 
best  conditions  available  for  his  own  moral  and  intel- 
lectual development.  It  is  especially  the  moral 
aspect  of  his  spiritual  growth  that  depends  most  upon 
and  finds  its  best  medium  in  the  (normally  constituted) 
home. 

(2)  Nevertheless  the  more  complex  phases  of  the 
spiritual  development  of  the  child  demands  media  of 
a  correspondingly  complex  and  carefully  chosen  char- 
acter. These  media  are  those  specially  known  as 
educational  and  can  be  best  realized  only  through 
association  in  large  groups.  (The  practical  questions 
here  are  classification  of  pupils  and  gradation  of  their 
work,  with  division  of  labor  to  the  extent  of  securing 


64  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

the  highest  degree  of  efficiency  in  teaching.)  Here 
voluntary  association  is  the  ethical  demand  and  its 
highest  form  is  found  in  the  schools  supported  by 
self  imposed  taxation  in  a  free  or  self-governed  com- 
munity. Further,  the  relation  which  on  the  part  of 
the  child  is  to  be  counted  as  a  right,  is  also  on  the 
part  of  the  parent  a  duty.  So  also  the  duty  of  the 
parent  to  secure  educational  facilities  for  the  child  is 
no  less  a  right  on  the  part  of  the  parent  as  toward  the 
child,  who,  by  the  very  fact  of  his  right  to  these 
advantages,  is  under  moral  obligation  to  make  the 
best  possible  use  of  them. 

(3)  It  is  of  special  iniportance  to  note  in  this  con- 
nection that  the  obligations  of  the  parent  to  the  child 
in  respect  of  moral  oversight  are  absolute  and  cannot 
by  these  or  any  other  means  be  in  the  least  reduced 
in  degree  nor  can  they,  in  any  measure,  be  delegated 
or  transferred.  The  duties  of  the  teacher  are  sui generis 
and  can  only  be  added  to,  but  can  never  take  the  place 
of,  those  of  the  parent  to  the  child.  To  both  parent 
and  teacher  the  child  owes  the  absolute  duty  of  obe- 
dience, as  he  has  also  the  absolute  right  to  be  always 
reasonably  commanded  by  both. 

(4)  The  sacrifices  made  by  the  parent  in  performing 
his  duty  toward  the  child  also  constitute  a  means  of 
discipline  to  the  parent  himself.  So  that  here,  too,  in 
performing  his  duties  he  is  (however  unconsciously) 
realizing  his  own  highest  rights  as  well. 


OBJECTIVE   ASPECT    OF    ETHICS,  6$ 

On  the  other  hand  the  child,  stimulated  to  increased 
exertion  by  his  sense  of  obligation  to  his  parents,  is  by 
that  fact  securing  in  increased  degree  his  own  essential 
rights  in  point  of  intellectual  and  moral  development. 
—  Thus,  in  this  sphere  also,  and  from  whatever  point 
of  view  the  relation  between  parents  and  children  is 
approached,  it  is  again  manifest  that  every  right  is  also 
a  duty  and  that  every  duty  is  also  a  right. 

C.  Rational  Dissolution  of  t/w  Family.  As  the 
essential  moral  purpose  of  the  family  is  that  of 
means  to  the  maturing  of  the  moral  units  or  indi- 
vidual Wills  composing  it,  it  is  but  inevitable  that  as 
this  end  is  accomplished  the  given  family  group  must 
dissolve  into  a  number  of  independent  individuals. 
Thus  the  children,  as  they  attain  moral  maturity  (i.  e. 
became  actual  persons),  form  each  a  new  alliance  — 
become  each  a  party  to  the  founding  of  a  new  family. 
(Rational  exceptions  must  be  from  reasons  of  health, 
or  of  renunciation  for  the  purpose  of  more  perfectly 
fulfilling  a  given  mission  rightly  regarded  in  such 
exceptional  cases  as  a  higher  duty.) 

The  final  stage  in  the  normal  dissolution  of  the 
family  group  appears  in  the  death  of  one  or  other  of 
the  parents  after  having  aided  the  children  to  the 
attainment  of  rational  independence. 

III.  The  State,  (i)  By  its  own  expansion  the 
family  becomes  many  families.  These  groups  again, 
and  the  individuals  composing  them,  are  necessarily 
5 


66  A    SYLLABUS    OF   ETHICS. 

related  one  to  another.  And  further,  to  be  rational 
in  the  sense  of  real  these  relations  must  become 
organic. 

The  organic  form  assumed  by  these  wider  human 
relations  is,  on  one  side,  the  State. 

This  organic  form  is  a  measure  of  the  real  extent 
and  character  of  the  political  life  of  a  people.  What 
is  called  a  "  constitution,"  if  it  has  vital  significance  in 
the  state,  is  but  an  outer  form  showing  how  the  people 
as  a  political  body  are  constituted. 

As  the  state  is  but  the  expansion  of  the  family  on 
the  side  of  securing  to  each  individual  his  rights  as 
toward  all  other  individuals  it  follows  that,  as  in  case 
of  the  family,  so  also  here,  those  in  authority  are 
morally  bound  to  secure  the  best  possible  conditions 
for  the  intellectual  and  moral  development  of  each  and 
all  the  members  comprising  the  group. 

These  conditions  are  :  {a)  Settled  order  involving 
security  against  invasion  of  individual  rights  whether 
of  person  or  of  property;  {b)  Security  against  inva- 
sion of  social  and  political  rights  as  against  foreign 
power;  and  (c)  An  educational  system  providing  for 
an  intelligent,  moral  and  therefore  efficient  citizenship. 

(2)  In  all  this  the  ideal  is,  not  repression  but 
rational  development  of  the  individual — the  fostering 
and  cultivation  of  his  powers  toward  rational  self- 
government. 

Such  being  the  duty  of  the  State,  the  State  in  that 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  6^] 

very  fact  has  also  the  right  to  demand  of  every  citizen 
that  he  shall  perform  whatever  functions  may  be  de- 
manded of  him  for  the  realization  of  these  rational 
ends  proposed  by  the  State  for  the  benefit  of  the 
individual  citizen. 

Conversely  the  citizen  has  the  right  to  demand  of 
the  State  security  of  person  and  property  together  with 
means  for  his  education  as  a  citizen;  and  such  right 
involves  the  duty  on  his  part  to  loyal  obedience  to 
such  commands  as  the  State  may  give,  within  such 
limits,  as  toward  himself. 

(3)  In  the  "  absolute  "  monarchy  all  this  is  implicit 
in  greater  or  less  degree.  The  "  paternal  "  aspect 
implies  the  "  filial."  In  the  nature  of  the  case  there 
are  limitations  to  arbitrary  use  of  power.  The  more 
truly  paternal  the  authority  the  more  rapid  the  advance 
of  the  people  toward  comprehension  and  appreciation 
of  their  rights — that  is,  the  more  rapid  must  be  their 
advance  toward  maturity  of  active  rational  Will  which 
in  turn  must  find  articulate  expression  in  the  form  of 
a  demand  for  a  co/istifution  and  written  laws — that,  is, 
the  more  efficient  and  reasonable  an  "  absolute  " 
monarchy  proves  itself  to  be,  only  so  much  the  sooner 
must  it  dissolve  as  such  and  become  merged  into  a 
"  limited  "  or  constitutional  monarchy. 

(4)  Similarly,  the  more  enlightened  and  efficient 
the  monarchy  under  its  constitutional  form,  the  more 
rapid  the  advance  of  the  people  in  intelligence  and 


68  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

morality — in  the  elements  of  real  Freedom — and  hence 
the  sooner  must  it  become  merged  into  a  purely  Rep- 
resentative form  of  government — the  entire  govern- 
ment being  conducted  by  the  chosen  agents  of  the 
people  themselves. 

(5)  The  Ideal  of  the  State  is  one  and  continuous. 
What  particular  phase  of  its  realization  is  most  efficient 
or  "  practical  "  with  any  people  at  any  given  time  must 
depend  upon  the  stage  of  intellectual  and  moral 
advancement  already  attained  by  the  people  themselves. 

A  purely  representative  system  must  be  as  impracti- 
cable in  a  barbarous  State  as  an  absolute  monarchy 
would  be  with  a  highly  enlightened  people. 

IV.  The  School.  Already  included  in  the  Family, 
in  the  State  and  in  the  Church  the  School  is  still  a  dis- 
tinct institution,  with  unique,  well-defined  and  increas- 
ingly complex  functions.  The  individual  Will  in  its 
character  of  Instinct  is  due  to  heredity  in  the  more 
direct  sense  of  the  term. 

Already  at  birth,  indeed,  such  Will  is  a  positive,  com- 
plex unit  of  energy  specially  predisposed  to  action  of 
one  or  another  particular  kind.  Again  in  its  char- 
acter as  Habit  the  Will  may  still  be  regarded  as  in 
large  measure  the  outcome  of  heredity,  though  here  the 
inheritance  is  not  only  spiritual  instead  of  physical, 
but  it  is  also  of  an  exceedingly  subtle  character. 

From  the  moment  in  which  his  distinctly  individual 
existence  begins,  indeed,  the  human  being  is  not  only 


Objective  aspect  of  ethics.  69 

surrounded  by  a  humanized  nature  (the  temperature 
and  humidity  of  the  air  in  the  room,  as  well  as  the 
degree  of  light,  are  carefully  regulated  to  his  needs,- 
to  say  nothing  of  specially  prepared  food  and  clothing) 
but  he  is  also  ceaselessly  bathed  in  what  may  be  called 
the  spiritual  fluid  of   Custom. 

This  again,  in  its  existing  peculiar  character,  has 
been  evolved  through  the  entire  process  of  human 
history  and  to  this  the  individual  progressively  assimi- 
lates himself  in  those  specific  qualities  of  his  life 
which  in  their  outer  forms  are  revealed  as  his   Habits. 

But  also  in  every  moment  of  his  life  the  individual 
is  bathed  in  that  subtle,  but  none  the  less  real 
"atmosphere"  of  universal,  abiding  ;vA///t;;/jr  consti- 
tuting the  unity  of  the  world,  physical  and  spiritual; 
which  relations  are  to  be  more  or  less  securely 
rt/prehended  indeed  by  the  whole  being  of  man  ; 
while  on  the  other  hand  they  are  to  be  really  r^^wpre- 
hended  by  man  onlv  through  the  fullest  discipline  as 
well  as  the  utmost  and  most  consistent  and  persistent 
exercise  of  that  peculiar  mode  of  nnnd  known  as 
reflective  Intelligence,  as  Thought  properly  speaking. 
Only  through  the  fullest  cultivation,  onh-  through  the 
most  persistent  exercise  of  the  intellect  in  its  highest 
modes  can  human  consciousness  attain  its  most  ade- 
quate degree  of  maturity.  And  that  amounts  to  say- 
ing that  in  no  other  way  than  through  the  fullest 
intellectual  development  can  Conscience  as  the  Ethical 


70  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

aspect  of  Consciousness  become  truly  enlightened  and 
thus  prove  a  safe  guide  through  the  r^wplexities  of 
•life  which  to  the  unenlightened  conscience  so  often 
prove  to  be  the  fatal /^rplexities  of  life — fatal  because 
in  such  maze  the  groping  mind  loses  its  way,  falls  into 
self-contradiction  and  unwittingly  turns  life  into 
death.  It  is  simply  impossible  to  be  fully  "born 
again  "  into  the  higher  forms  of  life  with  all  their 
rich  significance  save  through  the  maturing  of  the 
whole  mind  including  the  Intellect  in  fullest  measure; 
and  this,  as  we  have  just  seen,  is  necessarily  involved 
in,  and  hence  depends  upon,  the  maturing  of  the 
whole  social  organism. 

Now  the  School  is  just  that  special  aspect  of  the 
Social  Organism  which  has  for  its  most  immediate 
specific  function  to  stimulate  and  guide  the  individual 
mind  in  the  intellectual  aspect  of  its  development. 
And  the  ultimate  end  here  aimed  at  is  two-fold,  (i) 
In  the  first  place  it  is  the  function  of  the  school  to 
bring  the  individual  mind  as  speedily  as  possible  to 
comprehend  its  own  true  worth  as  being  (for  itself)  the 
actual  focus  in  which  the  whole  sum  of  concrete  rela- 
tions constituting  its  environment  have  their  normal 
center.  The  ethical  factor  in  this  is  the  development 
of  Self-respect.  (2)  In  the  second  place  the  end 
aimed  at  in  the  intellectual  training  of  the  child 
includes  this  also.  That  with  least  delay  and  with 
utmost   precision  and  fulness  he  shall  learn  to  com- 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  7 1 

prehend  that  toward  his  own  normal  development  (or 
abnormal  prevention  and  perversion  of  development) 
the  whole  complex  of  relations  constituting  the  environ- 
ment works,  and  must  ceaselessly  work,  according  as 
the  attitude  of  the  individual  mind  to  the  whole  is 
rational  or  the  reverse.  And  here  the  ethical  factor  is 
the  development  of  respect  for  the  environment  as 
the  total,  infinitely  concrete,  infinitely  complex  embod- 
iment of  Reason  in  its  ultimate  divine  nature.  There- 
fore is  it  that  the  child  is  taught  the  laws  of  the  physi- 
cal world  summarized  in  the  .  Sciences  of  Physics, 
Chemistry  and  Biology.  Therefore  is  he  taught  the 
laws  of  the  Social  World  as  unfolded  implicitly,  first 
in  the  forms  of  Language,  Literature,  Art  and  His- 
tory ;  and  again  as  unfolded  exj^licitly  in  the  ethical 
sciences  —  Politics,  Social  Philosophy  and  Ethics 
strictly  speaking. 

For  his  own  fullest  security  and  guidance  in  the 
process  of  his  own  self-realization  individual  man 
must  possess  developed  power  of  reflection;  he  must 
have  acquired  clearly  organized,  consistently  unfolded 
knowledge  both  of  nature  and  of  man.  And  (with 
rare  exceptions  at  most)  it  is  through  the  school,  and 
through  the  school  alone  that  the  highest  degree  of 
the  habit  of  mind  rendering  such  acquisition  of 
knowledge  possible  is  to  be  really  attained  at  all. 
And  further,  since  self-realization  is  the  ultimate  ethi- 
cal end  of  life,  and  since  the  attainment  of  the  fullest 


72  A   SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

possible  measure  of  organized  knowledge  of  the  world 
of  nature  on  the  one  hand  and  of  the  world  of  man  on 
the  other  is  a  necessary  condition  to,  or  rather  an  essen- 
tial phase  of,  such  self-realization  in  its  more  advanced 
degrees,  then  it  is  evident  that  the  individual  has  ab- 
solute, inalienable  moral  right  to  the  fullest  possible 
sum  of  conditions  making  for  the  attainment  of  such 
knowledge.  In  other  words  the  individual  has  abso- 
lute moral  right  to  this,  That  all  other  individuals 
shall  join  in  deliberate,  concerted,  unreserved  effort 
to  secure  to  him  the  fullest  possible  sum  of  condi- 
tions tending  toward  the  truest  form  of  his  self-reali- 
zation, and  this  in  richest  attainable  degree. 

And  if  it  be  admitted  that  this  is  the  absolute  ^4'"'^// 
of  each  then  inevitably  it  is  equally  the  absolute  Duty 
of  each  to  contribute  of  his  whole  being — property, 
sympathy,  thought  and  deed — to  the  richest  possible 
realization  of  this  Right  for  each  and  every  other 
member  of  the  community  (which  in  the  fullersenseis 
the  State,  and  in  the  fullest  sense  is  the  whole  human 
race). 

Here  as  elsewhere  if  I  refuse  to  be,  in  absolute 
good- faith — in  very  deed  and  truth — my  brother's 
keeper,  then  by  the  very  fact  of  such  refusal  I  become 
for  myself  an  immeasurable  loser.  Because  the  indi- 
vidual mind  is  universal  in  its  nature  or  type  it  is  not 
merely  included  in  all,  it  also  and  none  the  less  truly 
includes  all  within  itself.     The  State  is  above  the  In- 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  73 

dividual  only  so  far  as  the  individual  is  capricious. 
In  so  far  as  the  Individual  is  rational //<;'/>/'//,"  .S/^/A' 
itself;  for  there  is  no  rational  (/.  c.  truly  Ethical)  de- 
mand which  the  State  can  make  upon  him  that  is  not 
already  present  within  him  as  an  absolutely  vital,  un- 
alterable law  of  his  own  being.  Nay  he  is  more  than 
the  State,  for  there  are  demands  of  his  nature  which 
the  State  as  such  cannot  possibly  satisfy.  Hence  are 
there  other  institutions  ori^^anic  to  man's  inner  or 
spiritual  nature  and  indispensable  to  the  full  expres- 
sion or  embodiment  of  that  nature. 

And  the  School  is  one  of  these  institutions.  The 
State  can  decree  the  School,  and  must  do  so.  It  can 
provide  the  outer  form  and  instrumentalities  of  the 
School,  and  must,  on  penalty  of  self-dissolution;  but 
the  School  in  its  essential  character  as  the  medium 
through  which  individual  minds  are  to  be  stimulated 
and  guided  into  such  self-activity  as  results  in  the 
mastery  and  very  assimilation  of  the  fundamental 
principles  or  phases  of  Reason  which  constitute  the 
essence  of  the  World,  whether  of  Nature  or  of  Man — 
in  this  sense  the  School  is  and  can  only  be  the  crea- 
tion of  the  mature  individual  mind — ripe  in  its  intel- 
ligence, refined  in  its  sensibilities,  gentle  in  its  as- 
sured power  as  Will,  and  withal  transfused  with  that 
genuine  "enthusiasm  of  humanity"  which  must  ever 
characterize  the  true  teacher. 

All  this  every  pupil  has  a  right  to  expect  of  his  teacher 


74  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

just  as,  on  the  other  hand,  every  one  who  assumes  the 
responsibilities  of  teacher  is  in  duty  bound  to  fulfil 
such  expectation. 

On  the  other  hand  in  so  far  as  the  teacher  performs 
his  duty  toward  the  pupil,  patiently  pointing  out  to 
him  the  essential  facts  and  relations  involved  in  the 
given  stage  of  the  pupil's  own  development,  in  so  far 
the  teacher  has  a  right  to  expect  of  his  pupil  the  full- 
est measure  of  attention  and  patient  effort  of  which 
he  is  capable.  And  further,  just  as  the  teacher  is  in 
duty  bound  (negatively)  to  avoid  all  that  could  dis- 
courage or  embitter  the  pupil  on  the  one  hand,  and 
on  the  other  hand  (positively)  to  make  use  in  kind- 
liest way  of  all  proper  means  to  stimulate  healthful 
effort  toward  self-realization  on  the  pupil's  part,  so 
again  the  pupil  is  in  duty  bound  to  give  patient,  doc- 
ile obedience  to  the  directions  of  the  teacher  and  to 
bend  all  his  energies  to  the  performance  of  tasks  as- 
signed. 

And  evidently  the  enthusiasm  of  the  teacher,  his 
eager,  self-forgetful  performance  of  his  own  duty  tow- 
ard the  pupil  must  ever  prove  the  surest  way  of  secur- 
ing his  own  rights  in  the  way  of  cheerful  obedience 
and  eager  performance  of  work  on  the  part  of  his 
pupils;  just  as  the  earnest  performance  of  duty  on  the 
part  of  the  pupil  must  in  general  put  beyond  ques- 
tion the  fullest  recognition  of  his  rights  on  the  part 
of  the  teacher.     It  is  in  the  rhythm  of  work  performed 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  75 

in  such  spirit  in  the  school-room  that  all  bitterness  is 
canceled,  all  discords  annulled,  and  the  beauty  of  a 
world  of  Reason  prophesied,  and  even  in  some  degree 
made  real  here  and  now.  It  is  in  such  teaching  that 
the  finest  values  in  the  way  of  the  practical  results  of 
Ethical  teaching  consists. 

Though  also  it  cannot  be  too  much  insisted  upon 
that  the  direct  ethical  function  of  the  School  consists 
in  the  development  of  consciousness  on  the  part  of 
pupils  of  the  great  central  principles  involved  in 
human  existence,  conformity  to  which  means  life  and 
disregard  of  which  inevitably  entails  death.  In  a  word 
the  ethical  function  of  the  School  is  to  raise  the  con- 
science of  the  individual  pupil  from  the  merelv  in- 
stinctive degree  to  that  of  an  enlightened  Conscience. 
Or  again  its  ethical  function  is  to  aid  in  rendering 
the  progressively  unfolding  individual  Will  truly  free 
through  the  complete  interfusion  of  that  Will  with 
trained  intelligence. 

But  to  this  end  the  religious  factor  is  equally  neces- 
sary. Hence  the  objective  aspect  of  ethics  must  in- 
volve a  further  institution  —  the  Church. 

V.  The  Church.  The  State  is  the  expansion  of  the 
family  ///  one  of  its  essential  aspects.  The  Church  is 
the  expansion  of  the  family  in  another  and  comple- 
mentary aspect.  The  Church  cannot  be  rightly  re- 
garded as  merely  one  aspect  of  the  State.  Just  as  out 
of  the  rudimentary  stage  of  consciousness  (in  the  pro- 


•jd  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

gressive  development  of  the  individual)  the  two  cog- 
nate and  always  inseparable,  while  yet  increasingly 
distinct,  modes  of  mind — Intelligence  and  Practical 
Sentiment — are  developed;  so  from  the  Family  as  the 
rudimentary  form  of  the  social  organism  there  are 
found  to  develop  the  two  cognate  and  always  inter- 
fused while  yet  increasingly  distinct  modes,  namely 
the  State  and  the  Church.  The  State  is  the  organic 
form  which  the  political  life  of  man  assumes  while  the 
Church  is  the  organic  form  into  which  the  religious 
life  of  man  unfolds. 

In  either  case  the  functions  involved  must  fail  of 
realization  save  through  the  appropriate  organic  struc- 
tural form;  and  those  functions  constitute  life  itself. 
Without  the  State  man  must  have  remained  a  savage; 
or  rather,  could  never  have  become  man  at  all.  With- 
out the  Church  man  could  never  have  arisen  above 
the  grossest  superstition  ;  and  even  this  implies  at 
least  a  rudimentary  Church. 

Man  can  be  fully  realized  as  man — can  live  the  life 
of  man  in  the  fullest  sense — only  by  the  unfolding  of 
that  life  in  all  the  organic  forms  which  its  nature 
demands. 

Religion  has  no  doubt  been  rightly  defined  as  the 
"relation  of  Man  to  God."  But  man  is  related  to 
God  through  all  forms  of  Reality  and  especially 
through  that  most  complex  form  of  reality,  man  him- 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF^ ETHICS.  ']'] 


self.  Individual  man  rises  to  God  through  associa- 
tion with  his  fellow-man. 

In  property  (looking  to  the  least  adequate  phases 
of  human  creation)  man  finds  himself  even  there 
necessarily  related  to  his  fellow-man.  In  Religion 
(looking  to  his  own  direct  relation  to  the  Supreme 
Creator)  man  still  finds  himself  related  to  his  fellow- 
man. 

Religion  is  the  practical  relation  of  man  to  God — 
\.\\t process  bv  which  man  fulfills  the  divine  nature  in 
himself  and  so  attains  to  harmony  with  the  Divine. 

Theology  is  the  scientific  (or  philosophic)  tracing 
out  and  representation  of  that  practical  relation  or 
process  in  its  fundamental  principles. 

The  Church  is  the  direct  medium  —  the  organic 
structural  form  —  through  which  that  process  is  to  be 
made  real. 

Thus  the  Church  is  itself  essentially  an  educational 
institution  having  especially  for  its  purpose  to  foster 
and  develop  the  moral  qualities  of  man  into  conscious 
conformity  with  the  divine  Ideal  of  all  spiritual  life — 
the  fusion  of  the  human  life  with  the  divine  Life. 

To  this  end  the  Church  has  the  right  (and  the  duty) 
to  demand  of  each  member  that  he  put  forth  with 
utmost  earnestness  and  sincerity  every  possible  effort 
to  unfold  his  intellectual  powers  so  as  to  comprehend, 
and  his  moral  powers  so  as  to  perform,  in  the  wisest 
and  most  efficient  manner  his  unalterable  obligations 


78  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

to  the  Divinity — such  obligations  necessarily  includ- 
ing all  his  obligations  to  his  fellow  man — financial, 
social,  political,  religious.  For  thus  only  can  individual 
man  hope  to  fulfil  his  own  obligations  to  himself.  It  is 
absolutely  true  that  "he  who  offends  in  one  offends  in 
all."  Thus  it  is  the  duty  of  the  individual  to  attend  with 
utmost  care  to  the  teachings  of  the  Church;  and  this 
necessarily  implies  the  absolute  right  of  the  individual 
to  be  taught  by  the  Church  the  true  lesson  of  his  rela- 
tion to  the  Divinity,  including  all  that  is  of  permanent 
validity  in  the  relation  of  man  to  man. 

Again  the  Church  as  the  organic  form  into  which 
the  religious  spirit  of  man  unfolds,  proves  to  be  itself 
a  growth — a  form  perpetually  undergoing  modifica- 
tion. Its  form  therefore  will  depend — has  ever  de- 
pended— essentially  upon  the  degree  and  character  of 
the  actual  religious  life  of  the  people. 

In  primitive  ages  uniformity  was  impossible  because 
there  was  no  common  standard — not  even  a  common 
object  of  worship.  As  enlightenment  increases  uni- 
formity seems  an  impossibility  from  the  multiform 
divergence  of  views  arising  in  consequence  of  the  in- 
creasingly complex  intellectual  activitv  of  man. 

But  the  same  principle  runs  through  all— to  aid 
man  in  his  efforts  to  live  a  more  consistently  rational, 
more  adequately  moral,  more  richly  religious  life. 

Whence  religious  teaching  must  ever  involve  a  dis- 
tinctly ethical  factor.     And  further,  the  science  of  the 


OBJECTIVE    ASPECT    OF    ETHICS.  79 

object  and  process  of  religion  must  include  the  pre- 
sentation of  fundamental  Ethical  principles  from  the 
religious  (and  theological)  point  of  view.  Whence 
Ethics  must  here  appear  rather  as  a  department  of 
Theology;  just  as  throughout  the  Science  of  Ethics 
in  the  ordinary  sense  there  is  always  and  inevitably 
to  be  discovered  a  distinct  theological  tinge. 

Thus  Ethics,  or  the  Science  of  the  fundamental 
principles  underlying  the  relations  of  man  to  man, 
merges  into  Theology,  or  the  science  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  underlying  the  relations  of  man  to 
God. 


SELECTED    LIST    OF    HAND    AND    REFERENCE 

BOOKS. 

The  beginner  in  any  department  of  study  can  only 
be  bewildered  by  an  extended  "  bibliography,"  while 
a  few  titles  will  really  serve  to  introduce  him  to  the 
subject  he  proposes  to  investigate.  The  following  are 
likely  to  be  most  helpful  to  one  entering  upon  the 
study  of  Ethics. 

I.  For  the  history  of  the  subject,  Sidgwick's  Out- 
lines of  the  History  of  Ethics  may  safely  be  balanced  by 
the  admirable  summaries  of  ethical  theories  in  Schwegf- 
ler's  handbook  of  the  History  of  Philosophy.  (This 
book  ought  to  be  carefully  read  as  a  whole,  so 
as  to  seize  the  standpoints  of  the  various  schools  in 
their  proper  perspective.) 

II.  Among  elementary  presentations  of  the  science 
of  Ethics  as  such,  Muirhead's  Elements  of  Ethic 
will  be  found  specially  fresh  and  suggestive.' 

III.  Of  the  more  extended  ethical  treatises,  ancient 
and  modern,  the  following  may  be  recommended  as 
best  presenting  the  various  points  of  view  :  (i)  Aris- 
totle's Niiomachean  Ethics  (Trans.  F.  H.  Peters) — 
presupposed  in  all  ethical  theory  since  his  time ;  (2) 
Epictetus,  The  Discourses  (Trans.  George  Long) — 
highest  expression  of  the  Ethics  of  Stoicism  ;  (3)  Kant's 

iio 


HAND    AND    REFERENCE    BOOKS  8 1 

Theory  of  Ethics  (Trans.  Thomas  Kingsmill  Abbott); 
(4)  Hegel's  Philosophie  dcs  Rcclits.  The  latter  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  for  the  objective  aspect  of  Ethics. 
To  this  the  present  writer  is  indebted  more  than  to  any 
other  single  work.* — Kant  and  Hegel  are  the  chief  rep- 
resentatives of  the  most  thorough-going  German 
Idealism;  (5)  Spencer's  The  Data  of  Ethics  \  (6)  Leslie 
Stephen,  Science  of  Ethics. — Spencer  and  Stephen  have 
given  the  fullest  formulation  to  evolutional  Ethics  ; 
(7)  Sidgwick's  The  MetJiods  of  Ethics — represents 
Utilitarianism  in  its  most  refined  form  ;  (8)  Lotze's 
Microcosmus,  especially  Books  V-VHI,  inclusive. — 
Lotze's  position  is  independent  though  idealistic ;  at 
the  same  time  it  is  strongly  pervaded  by  the  spirit  of 
modern  Science  ;  (9)  Emerson's  essays  on  Tlic  Con- 
duct of  Life — No  more  a  formal  treatise  on  Ethics  than 
the  Microcosmus  of  Lotze  ;  and  yet,  a  richly  suggest- 
ive and  ennobling  view  of  the  essentials  of  ethical 
relation  ;  (10)  Green's  Prolegomena  to  Ethics,  together 
with  his  Introductions  to  Hume's  Treatise  on  Human 
Nature,  especially  that  to  Vol.  W. — Green's  works  are 
rigidly  philosophical  and  are  not  surpassed  by  any 
ethical  treatise  in  the  English  language  in  point  of 
penetration  and  stimulating  quality;  (11)  For 
suggestive  intimations  of  the   principles    underlying 

*Readers  not  familiar  with  the  German  will  find  this  work  summarized  in 
"He,s:c/'s  Philoso/>hy  of  the  State  and  of  History"  by  George  S.  Morris. 
Published  by  S.  C.  Griggs  &  Co. 

6 


82  A    SYLLABUS    OF    ETHICS. 

the  objective  aspect  of  Ethics  it  need  hardly  be  said 
that  Plato's  Republic  is  invaluable,  while  as  a  modern 
survey  of  the  whole  general  sphere  of  social  life  Mac- 
kenzie's Introduction  to  Social  Philosophy  will  be  found 
specially  suggestive;  and  finally  (12)  Bradley's  Ethi- 
cal Studies  can  scarcely  fail  to  prove  specially  suited 
to  clear  the  mind  of  ethical  confusions  and  thus  pre- 
pare the  way  for  sound  and  consistent  views  in  this 
sphere. 


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